THE  MARVELOUS  PROGRESS  OF  THE  19TH  CENTURY 

The  above  symbolic  picture,  after  the  master  painting  of  Paul  Sinibaldi.  explains  the  secret  of  the  wonderful  progress  of  the  past 
100  years.     The  genius  of  Industry  stands  in  the  centre.     To  her  right  sits  Chemistry  ;  to  the  left  the  geniuses  of  Elec- 
tricity with  the  battery,  the  telephone,  the  electric  light;  there  also  are  the  geniuses  of  Navigation  with  the 
propeller,  and  of  Literature  and  Art,  all  bringing  their  products  to  Industry  who  passes  them 
through  the  hands  of  Labor  in  the  foreground  to  be  fashioned  for  the  use  of  mankind. 


THE  ACHIEVEMENTS  OF  ONE  HUNDRED  YEARS 

The  Wonderful 
1800     Century     '900 

ITS  HISTORY  AND  PROGRESS 


Embracing  Descriptions  of  the  Decisive  Battles  of  the  Century  and  the  Great  Soldiers  Who 
Fought  Them ;  the  Rise  and  Pall  of  Nations ;  the  Changes  in  the  Map  of  the  World,  and  sthe 
Causes  Which  Contributed  to  Folitical  and  Social  Revolutions;  Discoverers  and  Discoveries  ; 
Explorers  of  the  Tropics  and  Arctics ;  Inventors  and  Their  Inventions ;  the  Growth  of  Liter- 
ature, Science  and  Art ;  the  Progress  of  Religion,  Morals  and  Benevolence  in  All  Civilized  Nations. 


By  CHARLES  MORRIS,  LL.D. 

Author  of     The  Aryan  Race,"  "  Civilization,  It3  History.  Etc.,"  "  The  Greater  Republic,"  EtC- 


Embellished  With  Nearly  100  Full-Page  Half-Tone  Engravings,  Illus- 
trating the  Greatest  Events  of  the  Century,  and  100  Portraits  of  the 
Most  Famous  Men  in  the  World. 


H.  J.  SMITH    PUBLISHING  CO., 

CHICAGO,  ILL. 


Entered  according  to  Act  of  Congress  in  the  year  1899,   by 

W.  E.   SCTJLL, 
in  the  office  of  the  Librarian  of  Congress,  at  Washington. 


KBHKKVKI). 


LIST  OF  CHAPTERS  AND  SUBJECTS 

Introduction  PAGB 

A.  Bird's-eye  View — Tyranny  and  Oppression  in  the  Eighteenth  Century — Government 
and  the  Rights  of  Man  in  1900 — Prisons  and  Punishment  in  1900 — The  Factory 
System  and  Oppression  of  the  Workingman — Suffrage  and  Human  Freedom — 
Criminal  Law  and  Prison  Discipline  in  1800 — The  Era  of  Wonderful  Inventions — 
The  Fate  of  the  Horse  and  the  Sail — Education,  Discovery  and  Commerce  ....  23 

CHAPTER  I 
The  Threshold  of  the  Century 

The  Age  We  Live  in  .and  its  Great  Events — True  History  and  the  Things  Which  Make  It 
— Two  of  the  World's  Greatest  Events — The  Feudal  System  and  Its  Abuses — The 
Climax  of  Feudalism  in  France — The  States  General  is  Convened — The  Fall  of  the 
Bastille— King  and  Queen  Under  the  Guillotine — The  Reign  of  Terror — The  Wars  of 
the  French  Revolution — Napoleon  in  Italy  and  Egypt — England  as  a  Centre  of 
Industry  and  Commerce — The  Condition  of  the  German  States— Dissension  in  Italy 
and  Decay  in  Spain — The  Partition  of  Poland  by  the  Robber  Nations — Russia  and 
Turkey 33 

CHAPTER  II 
Napoleon  Bonaparte;   The  Man  of  Destiny 

A.  Remarkable  and  Wonderful  Career — The  Enemies  and  Friends  of  France — Move- 
ments of  the  Armies  in  Germany  and  Italy — Napoleon  Crosses  the  Alps  at  St. 
Bernard  Pass— The  Situation  in  Italy — The  Famous  Field  of  Marengo — A  Great 
Battle  Lost  and  Won — The  Result  of  the  Victory  of  Marengo — Napoleon  Returns  to 
France — Moreau  and  the  Great  Battle  of  Hohenlinden — The  Peace  of  Luneville — 
The  Peace  of  Amiens — The  Punishment  of  the  Conspirators  and  the  Assassination 
of  the  Duke  d'  Enghien—  Napoleon  Crowned  Emperor  of  the  French — The  Great 
Works  Devised  By  the  New  Emperor 44 

CHAPTER  III 
Europe  in  the  Grasp  of  the  Iron  Hand 

Gr*at  Preparations  for  the  Invasion  of  England — Rapid  March  on  Austria — The  Sur- 
render of  General, Mack — The  Eve  Before  Austerlitz — The  Dreadful  Lake  Horror — 
Treaty  of  Peace  With  Austria — Prussian  Armies  in  the  Field — Defeat  of  the  Prussians 
at  Jena  and  Auerstadt — Napoleon  Divides  the  Spoils  of  Victory — The  Frightful 
Struggle  at  Eylau— The  Cost  of  Victory — The  Total  Defeat  of  the  Russians  —The 
Emperors  at  Tilsit  and  the  Fate  of  Prussia— The  Pope  a  Captive  at  Fontainebleau — 
Hofer  and'  the  War  in  Tyrol — Napoleon  Marches  Upon  Austria — The 

(5) 

2046794 


6  LIST  OF  CHAPTERS  AND  SUBJECTS 

PACK 

Battle  of  Eckmuhl  and  the  Capture  of  Ratisbon — The  Campaign  in  Italy — The 
Great  Struggle  of  Essling  and  Aspern — Napoleon  Forced  to  His  First  Retreat — The 
Second  Crossing  of  the  Danube — The  Victory  at  Wagram — The  Peace  of  Vienna — 
The  Divorce  of  Josephine  and  Marriage  of  Maria  Louisa 57 

CHAPTER  IV 
The  Decline  and  Fall  of  Napoleon's  Empire 

The  Causes  of  the  Rise  and  Decline  of  Napoleon's  Power — Aims  and  Intrigues  in  Por- 
tugal and  Spain — Spain's  Brilliant  Victory  and  King  Joseph's  Flight — The  Heroic 
Defence  of  Saragossa — Wellington's  Career  in  Portugal  and  Spain — The  Invasion  of 
Russia  by  the  Grand  Army — Smolensk  Captured  and  in  Flames — The  Battle  of 
Borodino — The  Grand  Army  in  the  Old  Russian  Capital — The  Burning  of  the  Great 
City  of  Moscow — The  Grand  Army  Begins  its  Retreat — The  Dreadful  Crossing  of 
the  Beresina — Europe  in  Arms  Against  Napoleon — The  Battle  of  Dresden,  Napo- 
leon's Last  Great  Victory — The  Fatal  Meeting  of  the  Armies  at  Leipzig — The  Break- 
up of  Napoleon's  Empire — The  War  in  France  and  the  Abdication  of  the  Emperor — 
Napoleon  Returns  From  Elba — The  Terrible  Defeat  at  Waterloo — -Napoleon  Meets 
His  Fate 83 

CHAPTER  V 
Nelson  and  Wellington,  the  Champions  of  England 

England  and  France  on  Land  and  Sea — Nelson  Discovers  the  French  Fleet  in  Aboukir 
Bay — The  Glorious  Battle  of  the  Nile — The  Fleet  Sails  for  Copenhagen — The  Danish 
Line  of  Defence — The  Attack  on  the  Danish  Fleet — How  Nelson  Answered  the 
Signal  to  Cease  Action— Nelson  in  Chase  of  the  French  Fleet— The  Allied  Fleet 
Leaves  Cadiz— Off  Cape  Trafalgar— The  "Victory"  and  Her  Brilliant  Fight— The 
Great  Battle  and  its  Sad  Disaster— Victory  for  England  and  Death  for  Her  Famous 
Admiral — The  British  in  Portugal — The  Death  of  Sir  John  Moore — The  Gallant 
Crossing  of  the  Douro— The  Victory  at  Talavera  and  the  Victor's  Reward — Welling- 
ton's Impregnable  Lines  at  Torres  Vcdras — The  Siege  and  Capture  of  the  Portuguese 
Fortresses — Wellington  Wins  at  Salamanca  and  Enters  Madrid— Vittoria  and  the 
Pyrenees— The  Gathering  of  the  Forces  at  Brussels— The  Battlefield  of  Waterloo— 
The  Desperate  Charges  of  the  French— Bliicher' s  Prussians  and  the  Charge  of 
Napoleon's  Old  Guard 101 

CHAPTER  VI 
From  the  Napoleonic  Wars  to  the  Revolution  1830 

A  Quarter  Century  of  Revolution — Europe  After  Napoleon's  Fall — The  Work  of  the 
Congress— Italy,  France  and  Spain— The  Rights  of  Man— The  Holy  Alliance— Revo- 
lution in  Spain  and  Naples — Metternich  and  His  Congresses How  Order  Was 

Restored  in  Spain— The  Revolution  in  Greece— The  Powers  Come  to  the  Rescue  of 
Greece— The  Spirit  of  Revolution— Charles  X.  and  His  Attempt  at  Despotism— The 
Revolution  in  Paris— Louis  Phillippe  Chosen  as  King— Effect  in  Europe  of  the  Revo- 
lution— The  Belgian  Uprising  and  its  Result — The  Movements  in  Germany The 

Condition  of  Poland— The  Revolt  of  the  Poles— A  Fatal  Lack  pf  Unity— The  Fate 
of  Poland 


LIST  OF  CHAPTERS  AND  SUBJECTS  ^ 

CHAPTER  VII 

Bolivar,  the  Liberator  of  Spanish  America  PAGB 

How  Spain  Treated  Her  Colonies — The  Oppression  of  the  People — Bolivar  the  Revolu- 
tionary Leader — An  Attempt  at  Assassination — Bolivar  Returns  to  Venezuela — The 
Savage  Cruelty  of  the  Spaniards — The  Methods  of  General  Morillo — Paez  the 
Guerilla  and  His  Exploits — British  Soldiers  Join  the  Insurgents — Bolivar's  Plan  to 
Invade  New  Granada — The  Crossing  of  the  Andes — The  Terror  of  the  Mountains — 
Bolivar's  Methods  of  Fighting — The  Victory  at  Boyaca — Bolivar  and  the  Peruvians — 
The  Freeing  of  the  Other  Colonies 128 

CHAPTER  VIII 
Great  Britain  as  a  World  Empire 

Naj.  /Iconic  Wars'  Influence — Great  Awakening  in  Commerce — Developments  of  the  Arts 
— Growth  of  the  Sciences — A  Nation  Noted  for  Patriotism — National  Pride — Con- 
scious Strength — Political  Changes  and  Their  Influence — Great  Statesmen  of  Eng- 
land .  .  141 

CHAPTER  IX 
The  Great  Reform  Bill  and  the  Corn  Laws 

Causes  of  Unrest — Demands  of  the  People — The  Struggle  for  Reform  in  1830 — The  Corn 
Laws — Free  Trade  in  Great  Britain — Cobden  the  Apostle  of  Free  Trade — Other 
Promoters  of  Reform — England's  Enlarged  Commerce 147 

CHAPTER  X 

Turkey  the  "Sick  Man"  of  Europe 

The  Sultan's  Empire  in  1800 — Revolts  in  Her  Dependencies — Greece  Gains  Her  Free- 
dom— The  Sympathy  of  the  Christian  World — Russian  Threats — The  Crimean  War 
and  its  Heroes — The  War  of  1877 — The  Armenian  Massacres — The  Nations  Warn 
off  Russia — War  in  Crete  and  Greece  in  1897 — The  Tottering  Nation  of  to-day — 
The  "Sick  Man" 156 

CHAPTER  XI 
The  European  Revolution  of  1848 

Corrupt  Courts  and  Rulers — The  Spirit  of  Liberty  Among  the  People — Bourbonism — - 
Revolutionary  Outbreak  in  France — Spreads  to  Other  Countries — The  Struggle  in 
Italy — In  Germany — The  Revolt  in  Hungary — The  Career  of  Kossuth  the  Patriot, 
Statesman  and  Orator — His  Visit  to  America — Defeat  of  the  Patriots  by  Austria  and 
Hungary— General  Haynan  the  Cruel  Tyrant — Later  History  of  Hungary 167 

CHAPTER  XII 
Louis  Napoleon  and  the  Second  French  Empire 

The  Power  of  a  Great  Name — The  French  People  Love  the  Name  Napoleon — Louis 
Napoleon's  Personality — Elected  President — The  Tricks  of  His  Illustrious  Ancestor 


LIST  OF  CHAPTERS  AND  SUBJECTS 

PAGB 

Imitated — Makes  Himself  Emperor — The  War  With  Austria — Sends  an  Army  to 
Mexico — Attempt  to  Establish  an  Empire  in  America — Maximilian  Made  Emperor  in 
the  New  World — His  Sad  Fate — War  With  Germany — Louis  Napoleon  Dethroned  .  178 


CHAPTER   XIII 

Garibaldi  and  the  Unification  of  Italy 

The  Many  Little  States  of  Italy  —  Secret  Movements  for  Union  —  Mazzini  the  Revolu- 
tionist —  Tyranny  of  Austria  and  Naples  —  War  in  Sardinia  —  Victor  Emanuel  and 
Count  Cavour  —  Garibaldi  in  Arms  —  The  French  in  Rome  —  Fall  of  the  Papal  City  — 
Rise  of  the  New  Italy  —  Naval  War  With  Austria  ...............  194 

CHAPTER  XIV 
Bismarck  and  the  New  Empire  of  Germany 

The  State  of  Prussia  —  Sudden  Rise  to  Power  —  Bismarck  Prime  Minister  —  War  With  Den- 
mark—With Austria—  With  France—  Metz  and  Sedan—  Von  Moltke—  The  Fall  of 
Paris  —  William  I.  Crowned  Emperor  —  United  Germany  —  Bismarck  and  the  Young 
Kaiser  —  Peculiarities  of  William  II.  —  Germany  of  To-Day  ......  .....  207 

CHAPTER  XV 
Gladstone  the  Apostle  of  Liberalism  in  England 

Sterling  Character  of  the  Man  —  His  Steady  Progress  to  Power  —  Becomes  Prime  Minister 
—  Home  and  Foreign  Affairs  Under  His  Administration  —  His  Long  Contest  With 
Disraeli  —  Early  Conservatism  Later  Liberalism  —  Home  Rule  Champion  —  Result  of 
Gladstone's  Labors  ...........................  243 

CHAPTER  XVI 

Ireland  the  Downtrodden 

Ancient  Ireland  —  English  Domination  —  Oppression  —  Patriotic  Struggles  Against  English 
Rule  —  Robert  Emmet  and  His  Sad  Fate  —  Daniel  O'Connell  —  Grattan,  Curran  and 
Other  Patriots—  The  Fenians  —  Gladstone's  Work  for  Ireland  —  Parnell,  the  Irish 
Leader  in  Parliament  —  Ireland  of  the  Present 


CHAPTER  XVII 
England  and  Her  Indian  Empire 

Why  England  Went  to  India  —  Lord  Clive  and  the  East  India  Company  —  Sir  Arthur  Wel- 
lesley—  Trouble  With  the  Natives—  Subjugation  of  Indian  States—  The  Great  Mutiny— 
Havelock  —  Relief  of  Lucknow  —  Repulse  From  Afghanistan  —  Conquest  of  Burmah  _ 
Queen  Victoria  Crowned  Empress  of  India—  What  English  Rule  Has  Done  for  the 
Orient  —  A  Vast  Country  Teeming  With  Population  -Tts  Resources  and  Its  Prospects  268 


LIST  OF  CHAPTERS  AND  SUBJECTS  9 

CHAPTER  XVIII 
Thiers,  Gambetta  and  the  Rise  of  the  New  French  Republic        PAGE 

French  Instability  of  Character — Modern  Statesmen  of  France — Thiers — MacMahon — 
Gambetta — The  New  Republic — Leaders  in  Politics — Dangerous  Powers  of  the 
Army — Moral  and  Religious  Decline — Law  and  Justice — The  Dreyfus  Case  as  an 
Index  to  France's  National  Character  and  the  Perils  Which  Beset  the  Republic  .  .  277 

CHAPTER  XIX 

Paul  Kruger  and  South  Africa 

Review  of  the  Boers — Their  Establishment  in  Cape  Colony — The  Rise  and  Progress  of 
the  Transvaal  Republic — Diamond  Mines  and  Gold  Discoveries — England's  Aggres- 
siveness— The  Career  of  Cecil  Rhodes — Attempt  to  Overthrow  the  Republic — The 
Zulus  and  Neighboring  Peoples — The  Uitlanders — Political  Struggle  of  England  and 
Paul  Kruger — Chamberlain's  Demands — The  Boers' Firm  Stand — War  of  1899  ...  295 

CHAPTER  XX 
The  Rise  of  Japan  and  the  Decline  of  China 

Former  Cloud  of  Mystery  Surrounding  These  Two  Nations — Ancient  Civilizations — Closed 
Territory  to  the  Outside  World — Their  Ignorance  of  Other  Nations — The  Breaking 
Down  of  the  Walls  in  the  Nineteenth  Century — Japan's  Sudden  Rise  to  Power — 
Aptness  to  Learn — The  Yankees  of  the  East — Conditions  of  Conservatism  Holds  on 
in  China — Li  Hung  Chang  Rises  into  Prominence — The  Corean  Trouble — War  Be- 
tween China  and  Japan — The  Battle  of  Yalu  River — Admiral  Ito's  Victory — Japanese 
Army  Invades  the  Celestial  Empire — China  Surrenders — European  Nations  Demand 
Open  Commerce — Threatened  Partition ,,,,,.  309 

CHAPTER  XXI 

The  Era  of  Colonies 

Commerce  the  Promoter  of  Colonization — England's  Wise  Policy — The  Growth  of  Her 
Colonies  Under  Liberal  Treatment — India — Australia — Africa — Colonies  of  France 
and  Germany — Partition  of  Africa — Progress  of  Russia  in  Asia — Aggressiveness  of 
the  Czar's  Government — The  United  States  Becomes  a  Colonizing  Power — The 
Colonial  Powers  and  Their  Colonies  at  the  Close  of  the  Century 323 

CHAPTER   XXII 

How  the  United  States  Entered  the  Century 

A  Newly  Formed  Country — Washington,  the  National  Capital — Peace  With  France — 
Nations  of  State  Sovereignty — State  Legislatures  and  the  National  Congress — The 
Influence  of  Washington — The  Supreme  Court  and  its  Powers — Population  of  Less 
Than  Four  Millions^No  City  of  50,000  Inhabitants  in  America — Sparsely  Settled 
Country — Savages — Trouble  With  Algiers— War  Declared  by  Tripoli — Thomas  Jeffer- 
son Elected  President 343 


io  LIST  OF  CHAPTERS  AND  SUBJECTS 

CHAPTER  XXIII 
Expansion  of  the  United  States  From  Dwarf  to  Giant 

Ohio  Admitted  in  1802 — Louisiana  Purchased  From  French  1803 — Admission  of  the 
States — Florida  Transferred  to  the  United  States  1819 — The  First  Railway  in  1826 — 
Indians  Cede  Their  Illinois  Lands  in  1830 — Invention  of  Telegraph  1832 — Fremont's 
Expeditions  to  the  Pacific  Slope — Conquest  of  Mexico — Our  Domain  Established 
From  Ocean  to  Ocean  1848 — The  Purchase  of  Alaska  From  Russia  1867 — 
Rapid  Internal  Growth — Cities  Spring  up  on  the  Plains — A  Marvelous  Era  of 
Peace — Through  the  Spanish-American  War  Comes  the  Acquisition  of  First  Tropical 
Territory — From  East  to  West  America's  Domain  Reaches  Half-way  Around  the 
World — Three  Cities  Each  With  Over  1,000,000  Inhabitants 351 

CHAPTER  XXIV 
The  Development  of  Democratic  Institutions  In  America 

Colonization  and  its  Results — Religious  Influences — Popular  Rights — Limitations— Colonial 
Legislatures — The  Money  Question — Taxation — Confederation — The  Franchise — 
Property  Qualifications — Growth  of  Western  Ideas — Contrast  Between  Institutions  at 
the  Beginning  and  Close  of  the  Century 361 

CHAPTER  XXV 
America's  Answer  to  British  Doctrine  of  Right  of  Search 

Why  the  War  of  1812  Was  Fought — The  Principles  Involved — Impressing  American 
Sailors — Insults  and  Outrages  Resented — The  "Chesapeake"  and  "Leopard" — 
Injury  to  Commerce — Blockades — Embargo  as  Retaliation — Naval  Glory — Failure  of 
Canadian  Campaign — "  Constitution  "  and  the  "  Guerriere  " — The  "Wasp"  and 
the  "Frolic" — Other  Sea  Duels — Privateers — Perry's  Great  Victory — Land  Opera- 
tions— The  "Shannon"  and  the  "Chesapeake" — Lundy's  Lane  and  Plattsburg — 
The  Burning  of  Washington — Baltimore  Saved — Jackson's  Victory  at  New  Orleans — 
Treaty  of  Peace 6() 

CHAPTER  XXVI 
The  United  States  Sustains  Its  Dignity  Abroad 

First  Foreign  Difficulty— The  Barbary  States— Buying  Peace— Uncle  Sam  Aroused— 
Thrashes  the  Algerian  Pirates— A  Splendid  Victory— King  Bomba  Brought  to  Terms 
— Austria  and  the  Koszta  Case — Captain  Ingraham — His  Bravery — "Deliver  or  I'll 
Sink  You"— Austria  Yields— The  Paraguayan  Trouble— Lopez  Comes  to  Terms— 
The  Chilian  Imbroglio — Balmaceda — The  Insult  to  the  United  States — American 
Seamen  Attacked— Matta's  Impudent  Letter— Backdown— Peace— All's  Well  That 
Ends  Well,  Etc ga 

CHAPTER  XXVII 
Webster  and  Clay— The  Preservation  of  the  Union 

The  Great  Questions  in  American  Politics  in  the  First  Half  of  the  Century— The  Great 
Orators  to  Which  They  Gave  Rise— Daniel  Webster— Henry  Clay— John  C.  Calhoun 


LIS7  OF  CHAPTERS  AND  SUBJECTS  n 

PAGB 

— Clay's  Compromise  Measure  on  the  Tariff  Question — On  Slavery  Extension — 
Webster  and  Calhoun  and  the  Tariff  Question — Webster's  Reply  to  Hayne — The 
Union  Must  and  Shall  be  Preserved 298 

CHAPTER  XXVIII 
The  Annexation  of  Texas  and  the  War  With  Mexico 

Texas  as  a  Province  of  Mexico — Rebellion  and  War — The  Alamo  Massacre — Rout  of 
Mexicans  at  San  Jacinto — Freedom  of  Mexico — Annexation  to  the  United  States 
— The  War  With  Mexico — Taylor  and  Buena  Vista — Scott  and  *Vera  Cruz — Advance 
on  and  Capture  of  Mexico — Results  of  the  War 413 

CHAPTER  XXIX 
The  Negro  In  America  and  the  Slavery  Conflict 

The  Negro  in  America — The  First  Cargo — Beginning  of  the  Slave  Traffic — As  a  Laborer 
— Increase  in  Numbers — Slavery  ;  its  Different  Character  in  Different  States — Politi- 
cal Disturbances — Agitation  and  Agitators — John  Brown — War  and  How  it  Emanci- 
pated the  Slave — The  Free  Negro — His  Rapid  Progress 425 

CHAPTER  XXX 
Abraham  Lincoln  and  the  Work  of  Emancipation 

Lincoln's  Increasing  Fame — Comparison  With  Washington — The  Slave  Auction  at  New 
Orleans — "  If  I  Ever  Get  a  Chance  to  Hit  Slavery,  I  Will  Hit  it  Hard  " — The  Young 
Politician — Elected  Representative  to  Congress — His  Opposition  to  Slavery — His 
Famous  Debates  With  Douglas — The  Cooper  Institute  Speech — The  Campaign  of 
1860 — The  Surprise  of  Lincoln's  Nomination — His  Triumphant  Election — Threats 
of  Secession — Firing  on  Sumter — The  Dark  Days  of  the  War — The  Emancipation 
Question— The  Great  Proclamation— End  of  the  War— The  Great  Tragedy— The 
Beauty  and  Greatness  of  His  Character , 436 

CHAPTER  XXXI 
Grant  and  Lee  and  The  Civil  War 

Grant  a  Man  for  the  Occasion — Lincoln's  Opinion — "Wherever  Grant  is  Things  Move  " 
— "Unconditional  Surrender" — "Not  a  Retreating  Man" — Lee  a  Man  of  Ac- 
knowledged Greatness — His  Devotion  to  Virginia — Great  Influence — Simplicity  of 
Habits — Shares  the  Fare  of  His  Soldiers — Lee's  Superior  Skill— Gratitude  and  Affec- 
tion of  the  South — Qreat  Influence  in  Restoring  Good  Feeling — The  War — Secession 
Not  Exclusively  a  Southern  Idea — An  Irrepressible  Conflict — Coming  Events — Lin- 
coln— A  Nation  in  Arms — Sumter — Anderson — McClellan— Victory  and  Defeat — 
"Monitor"  and  "  Merrimac  " — Antietam  —  Shiloh  —  Buell  —  Grant — George  H. 
Thomas  —  Rosecrans — Porter — Sherman  —  Sheridan  —  Lee  —  Gettysburg  —  A  Great 
Fight— Sherman's  March— The  Confederates  Weakening— More  Victories— Appo- 
mattox — Lee's  Surrender — From  War  to  Peace 449 


12  LIST  OF  CHAPTERS  AND  SUBJECTS 

CHAPTER  XXXII 
The  Indian  in  the  Nineteenth  Century  *AG1 

Our  Relations  and  Obligations  to  the  Indian — Conflict  between  Two  Civilizations — Indian 
Bureau — Government  Policy — Treaties — Reservation  Plan — Removals  Under  It — - 
Indian  Wars — Plan  of  Concentration — Disturbance  and  Fighting — Plan  of  Education 
and  Absorption — Its  Commencement — Present  Condition  of  Indians — Nature  of 
Education  and  Results — Land  in  Severally  Law — Missionary  Effort — Necessity  and 
Duty  of  Absorption 460 

CHAPTER  XXXIII 
The  Development  of  the  American  Navy 

The  Origin  of  the  American  Navy — Sights  on  Guns  and  What  They  Did — Opening  Japan 
— Port  Royal — Passing  the  Forts — The  "Monitor"  and  "Merrimac" — In  Mobile 
Bay — The  "Kearsarge"  and  the  "Alabama" — Naval  Architecture  Revolutionized 
— The  Samoan  Hurricane — Building  a  New  Navy — Great  Ships  of  the  Spanish  Amer- 
ican War — The  Modern  Floating  Iron  Fortresses — New  '  'Alabama ' '  and  ' '  Kearsarge  "  48? 

CHAPTER  XXXIV 
America's  Conflict  With  Spain 

A  War  of  Humanity — Bombardment  of  Matanzas — Dewey's  Wonderful  Victory  at  Manila 
— Disaster  to  the  "Winslow"  at  Cardenas  Bay — The  First  American  Loss  of  Life — 
Bombardment  of  San  Juan,  Porto  Rico — The  Elusive  Spanish  Fleet — Bottled-up  in 
Santiago  Harbor— Lieutenant  Hobson's  Daring  Exploit — Second  Bombardment  of 
Santiago  and  Arrival  of  the  Army — Gallant  Work  of  the  Rough  Riders  and  the 
Regulars — Battles  of  San  Juan  and  El  Caney — Destruction  of  Cervera's  Fleet — 
General  Shafter  Reinforced  in  Front  of  Santiago — Surrender  of  the  City — General 
Miles  in  Porto  Rico — An  Easy  Conquest — Conquest  of  the  Philippines — Peace  Nego- 
tiations and  Signing  of  the  Protocol — Its  Terms — Members  of  the  National  Peace 
Commission — Return  of  the  Troops  from  Cuba  and  Porto  Rico — The  Peace  Com- 
mission in  Paris — Conclusion  of  its  Work — Terms  of  the  Treaty — Ratified  by  the 
Senate 4o6 

CHAPTER  XXXV 
The  Dominion  of  Canada 

The  Area  and  Population  of  Canada— Canada' s  Early  History— Upper  and  Lower 
Canada — The  War  of  1812 — John  Strachan  and  the  Family  Compact — A  Religious 
Quarrel— French  Supremacy  in  Lower  Canada— The  Revolt  of  1837— Mackenzie's 
Rebellion — Growth  of  Population  and  Industry— Organization  of  the  Dominion  of 
Canada— The  Riel  Revolts— The  Canadian  Pacific  Railway— The  Fishery  Difficulties 
—The  Fur-Seal  Question— The  Gold  of  the  Klondike— A  Boundary  Question— 
An  International  Commission— The  Questions  at  Issue— The  Failure  of  the  Com- 
mission-Commerce of  Canada  with  the  United  States— Railway  Progress  in  Canada 
—Manufacturing  Enterprise— Yield  of  Precious  Metals— Extent  and  Resources  of  the 
Dominion — The  Character  of  the  Canadian  Population 509 


LIST  OF  CHAPTERS  AND  SUJ3JECTS  13 

CHAPTER  XXXVI 

Livingstone,  Stanley,  Peary,  Nansen  and  other  Great  Discoverers  and 

Explorers  rAGB 

Ignorance  of  the  Earth's  Surface  at  the  Beginning  of  the  Century — Notable  Fields  of 
Nineteenth  Century  Travel — Famous  African  Travelers — Dr.  Livingstone's  Mission- 
ary Labors — Discovery  of  Lake  Ngami — Livingstone's  Journey  from  the  Zambesi  to 
the  West  Coast — The  Great  Victoria  Falls — First  Crossing  of  the  Continent — Living- 
stone discovers  Lake  Nyassa — Stanley  in  Search  of  Livingstone — Other  African 
Travelers—  Stanley's  Journeys — Stanley  Rescues  Emin  Pasha — The  Exploration  of 
the  Arctic  Zone — The  Greely  Party — The  Fatal  "Jeanette  "  Expedition — Expedi- 
tions of  Professor  Nordenskjold— Peary  Crosses  North  Greenland — Nansen  and  his 
Enterprise — Andrees  Fatal  Balloon  Venture 523 

CHAPTER  XXXVII 
Robert  Fulton,  George  Stephenson,  and  the  Triumphs  of  Invention 

Anglo-Saxon  Activity  in  Invention — James  Watt  and  the  Steam  Engine — Labor-Saving 
Machinery  of  the  Eighteenth  Century — The  Steamboat  and  the  Locomotive — The  First 
Steamboat  Trip  up  the  Hudson — Development  of  Ocean  Steamers — George  Stephen- 
son  and  the  Locomotive — First  American  Railroads — Development  of  the  Railroad 
— Great  Railroad  Bridges — The  Electric  Steel  Railway — The  Bicycle  and  the  Auto- 
mobile— Marvels  in  Iron  and  Woodworking — Progress  in  Illumination  and  Heating 
— Howe  and  the  Sewing  Machine — Vulcanization  of  Rubber — Morse  and  the  Tele- 
graph— The  Inventions  of  Edison — Marconi  and  Wireless  Telegraphy — Increase  of 
Working  Power  of  the  Farmer — The  American  Reapers  and  Mowers — Commerce 
of  the  United  States 535 

CHAPTER  XXXVIII 
The  Evolution  in  Industry  and  the  Revolt  Against  Capital 

Mediaeval  Industry — Cause  of  Revolution  in  the  Labor  System — Present  Aspect  of  the 
Labor  Question — The  Trade  Union — The  International  Workingmen's  Association — 
The  System  of  the  Strike — Arbitration  and  Profit  Sharing — Experiments  and  Theories 
in  Economies — Co-operative  Associations — The  Theories  of  Socialism  and  Anarchism 
— Secular  Communistic  Experiments — Development  of  Socialism — Growth  of  the 
Socialist  Party — The  Development  of  the  Trust — An  Industrial  Revolution  ....  554 

CHAPTER  XXXIX 
Charles  Darwin  and  the  Development  of  Science 

Scientific  Activity  of  the . Nineteenth  Century — Wallace's  "Wonderful  Century" — Use- 
ful and  Scientific  Steps  of  Progress — Foster's  Views  of  Recent  Progress — Discoveries 
in  Astronomy — The  Spectroscope — The  Advance  of  Chemistry — Light  and  its  Phe- 
nomena— Heat  as  a  Mode  of  Motion — Applications  of  Electricity — The  Principles  of 


14  LIST  OF  CHAPTERS  AND  SUBJECTS 

PAG* 

Magnetism— Progress  in  Geology— The  Nebular  and  Meteoric  Hypotheses— Biolog- 
ical Sciences— Discoveries  in  Physiology — Pasteur  and  His  Discoveries — Koch  and 
the  Comma  Bacillus — The  Science  of  Hygiene — Darwin  and  Natural  Selection  .  .  .  569 

CHAPTER  XL 
Literature  and  Art  in  the  Nineteenth  Century 

Literary  Giants  ot  Former  Times— The  Standing  of  the  Fine  Arts  in  the  Past  and  the 
Present—  Ear\,  American  Writers — The  Poets  of  the  United  States — American  Novel- 
ists— American  Historians  and  Orators — The  Poets  of  Great  Britain — British  Novelists 
and  Historians — Other  British  Writers — French  Novelists  and  Historians — German 
Poets  and  Novelists — The  Literature  of  Russia — The  Authors  of  Sweden,  Norway 
and  Denmark — Writers  of  Italy — Other  Celebrated  Authors — The  Novel  and  its 
Development — The  Text-Book  and  Progress  of  Education — Wide-spread  use  of  Books 
and  Newspapers 591 

CHAPTER  XLI 
The  American  Church  and  the  Spirit  of  Human  Brotherhood 

Division  of  Labor — American  Type  of  Christianity — Distinguishing  Feature  of  American 
Life — The  Sunday-school  System — The  Value  of  Religion  in  Politics — Missionary 
Activity — New  Religious  Movements — The  Movement  in  Ethics — Child  Labor  in 
Factories — Prevention  of  Cruelty  to  Aminals — Prison  Reform — Public  Executions — • 
The  Spirit  of  Sympathy — The  Growth  of  Charity — An  Advanced  Spirit  of  Benevolence  6oj 

CHAPTER  XLII 

The  Dawn  of  the  Twentieth  Century 

The  Century's  Wonderful  Stages — Progress  in  Education — The  Education  of  Women — 
Occupation  and  Suffrage  for  Women— Peace  Proposition  of  the  Emperor  of  Russia — 
The  Peace  Conference  at  The  Hague — Progress  in  Science — Political  Evolution — 
Territorial  Progress  of  the  Nations — Probable  Future  of  English  Speech — A  Telephone 
Newspaper — Among  the  Dull-Minded  Peoples — Limitations  to  Progress — Probable 
Lines  of  Future  Activity — Industry  in  the  Twentieth  Century — The  King,  the  Priest 
and  the  Cash  Box — The  New  Psychology 61} 


LIST  OF  FULL-PAGE  ILLUSTRATIONS 


Progress  of  the  Nineteenth  Century Frontispiece 

Duke  of  Chartres  at  the  Battle  of  Jemappes 21 

Battle  of  Chateau-Gontier 22 

Death  of  Marat 31 

Last  Victims  of  the  Reign  of  Terror 32 

Marie  Antoinette  Led  to  Execution 37 

The  Battle  of  Rivoli 38 

Napoleon  Crossing  the  Alps 47 

Napoleon  and  the  Mummy  of  Pharaoh 48 

Napoleon  Bonaparte 53 

The  Meeting  of  Two  Sovereigns 54 

The  Death  of  Admiral  Nelson 59 

Murat  at  the  Battle  of  Jena 60 

The  Battle  of  Eylau 69 

The  Battle  of  Friedland 70 

The  Order  to  Charge  at  Friedland 79 

Napoleon  and  the  Queen  of  Prussia  at  Tilsit 80 

Marshal  Ney  Retreating  from  Russia 89 

General  Bliicher's  Fall  at  Ligny 90 

The  Battle  of  Dresden,  August  26  and  27,  1813 94 

Famous  English  Novelists , 95 

The  Eve  of  Waterloo 99 

Wellington  at  Waterloo  Giving  the  Word  to  Advance 100 

Retreat  of  Napoleon  from  Waterloo 109 

The  Remnant  of  an  Army no 

Illustrious  Leaders  of  England's  Navy  and  Army 119 

James  Watt,  the  Father  of  the  Steam  Engine 120 

Great  English  Historians  and  Prose  Writers 129 

Famous  Popes  of  the  Century 130 

Great  English  Statesmen  (Plate  I) 139 

Britain's  Sovereign  and  Heir  Apparent  to  the  Throne 140 

Popular  Writers  of  Fiction  In  England     ,    .    ,    , ,    , 149 


!6  LIST  OF  FULL- PAGE  ILLUSTRATIONS 

PAGI 

Great  English  Statesmen  (Plate  II) 15° 

Potentates  of  the  East *59 

Landing  in  the  Crimea  and  the  Battle  of  Alma 160 

The  Congress  at  Berlin,  June  13,  1878 169 

The  Wounding  of  General  Bosquet I7& 

The  Battle  of  Champigny 179 

Noble  Sons  of  Poland  and  Hungary 180 

Noted  French  Authors 189 

Napoleon  III.  at  the  Battle  of  Solferino 190 

Great  Italian  Patriots 199 

The  Zouaves  Charging  the  Barricades  at  Mentana 200 

Noted  German  Emperors 209 

Renowned  Sons  of  Germany 210 

The  Storming  of  Garsbergschlosschen 219 

Crown  Prince  Frederick  at  the  Battle  of  Frosch wilier 220 

Present  Kings  of  Four  Countries 229 

Great  Men  of  Modern  France 230 

Russia's  Royal  Family  and  Her  Literary  Leader 257 

Four  Champions  of  Ireland's  Cause 258 

Dreyfus,  His  Accusers  and  Defenders 281 

The  Dreyfus  Trial 282 

The  Bombardment  of  Alexandria 291 

Battle  Between  England  and  the  Zulus,  South  Africa 202 

The  Battle  of  Majuba  Hill,  South  Africa 301 

Two  Opponents  in  the  Transvaal  War .502 

Typical  American  Novelists 307 

Two  Powerful  Men  of  the  Orient 308 

Four  American  Presidents      4O^ 

Great  American  Orators  and  Statesmen .410 

The  Battle  of  Resaca  de  la  Palma 4Ip 

Great  American  Historians  and  Biographers 420 

Great  Men  of  the  Civil  War  in  America 445 

The  Attack  on  Fort  Donelson 4,5 

General  Lee's  Invasion  of  the  North 4cr 

The  Sinking  of  the  Alabama,  etc 45$ 

The  Surrender  of  General  Lee 4g. 

The  Electoral  Commission  Which  Decided  Upon  Election  of  President  Hayes 466 

Prominent  American  Political  Leaders 47e 

Noted  American  Journalists  and  Magazine  Contributors .  476 

The  U.  S.  Battleship  "Oregon" g 


LIST  OF  FULL- PAGE  ILLUSTRATIONS  17 

PACK 

In  the  War-Room  at  Washington 484 

Leading  Commanders  of  the  American  Navy,  Spanish- American  War 487 

Leading  Commanders  of  the  American  Army 488 

Prominent  Spaniards  in  1898 497 

Popular  Heroes  of  the  Spanish- American  War , 498 

The  Surrender  of  Santiago 501 

United  States  Peace  Commissioners  of  the  Spanish-American  War 502 

Illustrious  Sons  of  Canada 521 

Great  Explorers  in  the  Tropics  ?id  Arctics 522 

Inventors  of  the  Locomotive  and  the  Electric  Telegraph 539 

Edison  Perfecting  the  First  Phonograph 540 

The  Hero  of  the  Strike,  Coal  Creek,  Tenn 557 

Arbitration 558 

Illustrious  Men  of  Science  in  the  Nineteenth  Century 575 

Pasteur  in  His  Laboratory 576 

Great  Poets  of  England 589 

Great  American  Poets 590 

Count  Tolstoi  at  Literary  Work 603 

New  Congressional  Library  at  Washington,  D.  C 604 

Famous  Cardinals  of  the  Century 615 

Noted  Preachers  and  Writers  of  Religious  Classics 616 

Greater  New  York 629 

Delegates  to  the  Universal  Peace  Conference  at  The  Hague,  1899 630 

Key  to  above 631 


ALPHABETICAL  LIST  OF  PORTRAITS 


Abbott,  Lyman 476 

Adams,  John  Quincy 409 

Agassiz,  Louis 575 

Aguinaldo,  Emilio 308 

Albert  Edward,  (Prince  of  Wales)  ...  140 

Austin,  Alfred 589 

Balfour,  A.  J 150 

Bancroft,  George 420 

Barrie,  James  M 149 

Beecher,  Henry  Ward 410 

Besant,  Walter 149 

Bismarck,  Karl  Otto  Von 210 

Black,  William 149 

Elaine,  James  G 475 

Blanco,  Ramon 497 

Bright,  John 139 

Browning,  Robert 589 

Bryan,  William  Jennings 475 

Bryant,  William  Cullen 590 

Bryce,  James 150 

Caine,  T.  Hall 149 

Carlyle,  Thomas 129 

Cervera,  (Admiral) 497 

Chamberlain,  Joseph 302 

Christian  IX.,  (King  of  Denmark)         .  229 

Clay,   Henry 410 

Cleveland,  Grover 475 

Cooper,  James  Fenimore      ....        .  307 

Dana,  Charles  A 476 

Darwin,  Charles 575 

Davis,  Cushman  K 502 

Davis,  Richard  Harding 476 

Davitt,  Michael 258 

Day,  William  R 502 

DeLesseps,  Ferdinand 230 

Depew,  Chauncey  M.' 410 

Dewey,  George 487 

Dickens,  Charles 95 

Disraeli,  Benjamin 139 

Dreyfus,  (Captain),  Alfred 281 

Doyle,  A.  Conan  .    . 149 

Drummond,  Henry 616 


Dumas,  Alexander 
DuMaurier,  George 


Eggleston,  Edward , 

Emerson,  Ralph  Waldo  .  .  .  , 
Esterhazy,  Count  Ferdinand  W. 
Everett,  Edward  . 


Farrar,  Frederick  W. ,  (Canon)    .    .    . 
Francis  Joseph,  (Emperor  of  Austria) 

Froude,  Richard  H 

Frye,  William  P 


189 
149 

307 
590 
281 
410 

616 
229 
129 
502 


Gambetta,  Leon 230 

Garibaldi,  Guiseppe      199 

Gibbon,  Edward 129 

Gladstone,  William  Ewart 139 

Gough,  John  B 410 

Grady,  Henry  W 410 

Grant,  Ulysses  S 445 

Gray,  George 502 

Greeley,  Horace 476 

Hale,  Edward  Everett 307 

Halstead,  Murat 476 

Hawthorne,  Nathaniel 307 

Hawthorne,  Julian 476 

Healy,  T.  M 258 

Henry,  Patrick 410 

Henry,  Lieutenant-Colonel 281 

Hobson,  Richmond  Pearson 498 

Holmes,  Oliver  Wendell 590 

Howells,  William  Dean 307 

Hugo,  Victor 189 

Humbert,  (King  of  Italy) 229 

Humboldt,  F.  H.  Alexander  von    .    .    .  575 

Huxley,  Thomas  H 575 

Jackson,   Andrew 409 

Jefferson,  Thomas 409 

Kipling,  Rudyard      149 

Kosciusko,  Thaddeus 180 

Kossuth,  Louis •  180 

Kruger,  Paul 302 

(19) 


20 


ALPHABETICAL  LIST  OF  PORTRAITS 


Labori,  "Maitre 281 

Laurier,  Sir  Wilfrid 521 

Lee,  Robert  E 445 

Lee,  Fitzhugh 488 

Leo  XIII.,  (Pope) 130 

Li  Hung  Chang 308 

Lincoln,  Abraham 445 

Livingstone,  David 522 

Longfellow,  Henry  W 590 

Loubet  (President  of  France)      ....  230 

Lowell,  James  Russell 590 

Lytton,  (Lord)  Bulwer 95 

McCarthy,  Justin 150 

Macaulay,  Thomas  B 129 

MacDonald,  Sir  John  A 521 

MacDonald,  George 149 

McKinley,  William 475 

McMaster,  John  B 420 

Manning,  Henry  Edward  (Cardinal)  .    .  615 

Mercicr,  (General  of  French  Army)  .    .  281 

Merritt,  Wesley 488 

Miles,  Nelson  A 488 

Moltke,  H.  Karl  B.  von 210 

Morley,  John 150 

Morse,  Samuel  F.  B 539 

Motley,  John  1 420 

Nansen,  (Dr.)  Frithiof 522 

Napoleon  Bonaparte 53 

Nelson,  (Lord)  Horatio 119 

Newman,  John  Henry  (Cardinal)    .    .    .  615 

Nicholas  II.  and  Family,  (Czar  of  Russia)  257 


O'Brien,  William 

Oscar  II.,  (King  of  Sweden  and  Norway) 
Otis,  Elwell  S.    . 


Parnell,  Charles  Stewart   .... 

Parton,  James 

nasteur,  Louis,  in  his  Laboratory 
Peary,  Lieutenant  R.  E.  . 

Phillips,  Wendell 

Pitt,  William,  (Earl  of  Chatham) 

Pius  IX.,  (Pope) 

P-escott.  William  H. 


258 
229 
498 

258 
420 
576 
522 
410 

139 
130 


Reid,  Whitelaw 476 

Rios,   Montero 497 

Roosevelt,  Theodore 498 

Ruskin,  John 129 


Sagasta,  Praxedes  Mateo 497 

Sampson,  William  T 487 

Schley,  Winfield  Scott 487 

Scott,  Sir  Walter 95 

Shafter,  William  R 488 

Shah  of  Persia 150 

Shaw,  Albert  W 476 

Shelley,  Percy  B 589 

Sherman,  William  T 445 

Spurgeon,  Charles  H 616 

Stanley,  Henry  M 522 

Stephenson,  George 539 

Stevenson,  Robert  Louis .  149 

Sultan  of  Turkey 159 


Taylor,  Zachary 409 

Tennyson,  Alfred 589 

Thackeray,  William  Makepeace  ....  95 

Thiers,  Louis  Adolphe 230 

Thompson,  Hon.  J.  S.  D 521 

Tolstoi,  Count  Lyof  Nikolaievitch  .    .    .  603 

Trollope,  Anthony 95 

Tupper,  Sir  Charles 521 


Victor  Emmanuel  (King  of  Italy)  . 
Victoria  (Queen  of  England)  .    .    . 


199 
140 


Wallace,  General  Lew 307 

Watson,  John  (Ian  Maclaren)     .    .    .    .  616 

Watson,  John  Crittenden 487 

Watt,  James 120 

Watterson,  Henry  W 476 

Webster,  Daniel 410 

Wellington,  Arthur  Wellesley,  (Duke)    .  119 

Wheeler,  Joseph 498 

Whittier,  John  G 590 

William  I.,  Emperor  of  Germany  .    .    .  209 

II.,  Emperor  of  Germany  .    .    .  209 


420  I  Wordsworth,  William 589 


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BATTLE  OF  CH  ATEAU-GONTI  ER  (REIGN  OF  TERROR,  1792) 


INTRODUCTION. 


IT  is  the  story  of  a  hundred  years  that  we  propose  to  give  ;  the  record 
of  the  noblest  and  most  marvelous  century  in  the  annals  of  mankind. 

Standing  here,  at  the  dawn  of  the  Twentieth  Century,  as  at  the  summit 
of  a  lofty  peak  of  time,  we  may  gaze  far  backward  over  the  road  we  have 
traversed,  losing  sight  of  its  minor  incidents,  but  seeing  its  great  events  loom 
up  in  startling  prominence  before  our  eyes  ;  heedless  of  its  thronging  mil- 
lions, but  proud  of  those  mighty  men  who  have  made  the  history  of  the 
age  and  rise  like  giants  above  the  common  throng.  History  is  made  up 
.of  the  deeds  of  great  men  and  the  movements  of  grand  events,  and  there  is 
no  better  or  clearer  way  to  tell  the  marvelous  story  of  the  Nineteenth  Cen- 
tury than  to  put  upon  record  the  deeds  of  its  heroes  and  to  describe  the 
events  and  achievements  in  which  reside  the  true  history  of  the  age. 

First  of  all,  in  this  review,  it  is  important  to  show  in  what  the  great- 
ness of  the  century  consists,  to  contrast  its  beginning  and  its  ending, 
and  point  out  the  stages  of  the  magnificent  progress  it  has  made.  It  is  one 
thing  to  declare  that  the  Nineteenth  has  been  the  greatest  and  most  glorious 
of  the  centuries  ;  it  is  another  and  more  arduous  task  to  trace  the  develop- 
ment of  this  greatness  and  the  culmination  of  this  career  of  glory.  This  it 
is  that  we  shall  endeavor  to  do  in  the  pages  of  this  work.  All  of  us  have 
lived  in  the  century  here  described,  many  of  us  through  a  great  part  of  it, 
some  of  us,  possibly,  through  the  whole  of  it.  It  is  in  the  fullest  sense  our 
own  century,  one  of  which  we  have  a  just  right  to  feel  proud,  and  in  whose 
career  all  of  us  must  take  a  deep  and  vital  interest. 

Before  entering  upon  the  history  of  the  age  it  is  well  to 
take  a  bird's-eye  view  of  it,  and  briefly  present  its  claims  to      Eye  View 
greatness.     They  are  many  and  mighty,  and  can  only  be  glanced 
at  in  these  introductory  pages  ;  it  would  need  volumes  to  show  them  in  full. 
They  cover  every  field  of  human  effort.     They  have   to  do  with  political 
development,  the  relations  of  capital  and  labor,  invention,  science,  literature, 
production,  commerce,  and  a  dozen  other  life  interests,  all  of  which  will  be 
considered  in   this  work.     The  greatness  of  the  world's  progress  can    be 
most   clearly   shown   by   pointing   out   the   state   of   affairs    in    the    several 

23 


24  INTRODUCTION 

branches  of  human  effort  at  the  opening  and  closing  of  the  century  and 
placing  them  in  sharp  contrast.  This  it  is  proposed  to  do  in  this  introduc- 
tory sketch. 

A  hundred  years  ago  the  political  aspect  of  the  world  was  remarkably 

different  from  what  it  is  now.     Kings,  many  of  them,  were  tyrants  ;  peoples, 

as  a  rule,  were  slaves — in  fact,  if  not  in  name.     The  absolute  government 

of  the  Middle  Ages  had  been  in  a   measure  set  aside,  but  the  throne   had 

still  immense  power,  and  between  the    kings  and  the  nobles 

Tyranny  and  e 

)ppression  in    the  people  were  crushed   like  gram   between  the  upper  and 
the  Eighteenth  nether  millstones.     Tyranny  spread  widely  ;    oppression  was 

rampant  ;  poverty  was  the  common  lot  ;  comfort  was  confined 
to  the  rich  ;  law  was  merciless  ;  punishment  for  trifling  offences  was  swift 
and  cruel  ;  the  broad  sentiment  of  human  fellowship  had  just  begun  to 
develop  ;  the  sun  of  civilization  shone  only  on  a  narrow  region  of  the  earth, 
beyond  which  barbarism  and  savagery  prevailed.  , 

In  1800,  the  government  of  the  people  had  just  fairly  begun.  Europe 
had  two  small  republics,  Switzerland  and  the  United  Netherlands,  and  in 
the  West  the  republic  of  the  United  States  was  still  in  its  feeble  youth. 
The  so-called  republic  of  France  was  virtually  the  kingdom  of  Napoleon, 
the  autocratic  First  Consul,  and  those  which  he  had  founded  elsewhere 
were  the  slaves  of  his  imperious  will.  Government  almost  everywhere  was 
autocratic  and  arbitrary.  In  Great  Britain,  the  freest  of  the  monarchies, 
the  king's  will  could  still  set  aside  law  and  justice  in  many  instances  and 
parliament  represented  only  a  tithe  of  the  people.  Not  only  was  universal 
suffrage  unknown,  but  some  of  the  greatest  cities  of  the  kingdom  had  no 
voice  in  making  the  laws. 

Govern  men  t  and  ^n   I9°°i  a  century  later,  vast  changes  had  taken    place 

the  Rights  of     in  the  political  world.     The    republic  of    the  United  States 

had  grown  from  a  feeble  infant  into  a  powerful  giant,  and  its 
free  system  of  government  had  spread  over  the  whole  great  continent  of, 
America.  Every  independent  nation  of  the  West  had  become  a  republic 
and  Canada  still  a  British  colony,  was  a  republic  in  almost  everything  but 
the  name.  In  Europe,  France  was  added  to  the  list  of  firmly-founded 
republics,  and  throughout  that  continent,  except  in  Russia  and  Turkey,  the 
power  of  the  monarchs  had  declined,  that  of  the  people  had  advanced.  In 
1800,  the  kings  almost  everywhere  seemed  firmly  seated  on  their  thrones. 
In  1900,  the  thrones  everywhere  were  shaking,  and  the  whole  moss-grown 
institution  of  kingship  was  trembling  over  the  rising  earthquake  of  the 
popular  will. 

The  influence  of  the  people  in  the  government  had  made  a  marvelous 


INTRODUCTION  25 

advance.     The  right    of   suffrage,  greatly  restricted  in   1800,  had    become 
universal  in  most  of  the  civilized  lands  at  the  century's  end.     Throughout 
the  American  continent  every  male  citizen  had  the  right  of  voting.     The 
same  was  the  case  in  most  of  western  Europe,  and  even  in  far-off  Japan, 
which  a  century  before  had  been  held  under  a  seemingly  help-   suffrage  and 
less   tyranny.      Human    slavery,  which    held    captive    millions      Human 
upon  millions  of  men  and  women  in  1800,  had  vanished  from      Freedom 
the  realms  of  civilization  in  1900,  and  a  vigorous  effort  was  being  made  to 
banish  it  from  every  region  of  the  earth.     As  will  be   seen  from  this  hasty 
retrospect,  the  rights  of  man  had   made  a  wonderful  advance  during  the 
century,  far  greater  than  in  any  other  century  of  human  history. 

In  the  feeling  of  human  fellowship,  the  sentiment  of  sympathy  and 
benevolence,  the  growth  of  altruism,  or  love  for  mankind,  there  had  been 
an  equal  progress.  At  the  beginning  of  the  century  law  was  stern,  justice 
severe,  punishment  frightfully  cruel.  Small  offences  met  with  severe  retri- 
bution. Men  were  hung  for  a  dozen  crimes  which  now  call  for  only  a  light 

punishment.    Thefts  which  are  now  thought  severely  punished    . 

i     ,  ,  rr   ,  ,      Criminal  Law 

by  a  year  or  two  in   prison  then  often   led    to    the    scaffold.       and  Prison 

Men  are  hung  now,  in  the  most  enlightened  nations,  only  for      Discipline  in 
murder.     Then  they  were  hung  for  fifty  crimes,  some  so  slight 
as  to  seem  petty.     A  father  could  not  steal  a  loaf  of  bread  for  his  starving 
children    except  at    peril  of   a  long  term  of  imprisonment,    or,  possibly,  of 
death  on  the  scaffold. 

And  imprisonment  then  was  a  different  affair  from  what  it  is  now.  The 
prisons  of  that  day  were  often  horrible  dens,  noisome,  filthy,  swarming  with 
vermin,  their  best  rooms  unfit  for  human  residence,  their  worst  dungeons 
a  hell  upon  earth.  This  not  only  in  the  less  advanced  nations,  but  even  in 
enlightened  England.  Newgate  Prison,  in  London,  for  instance,  was  a  sink  of 
iniquity,  its  inmates  given  over  to  the  cruel  hands  of  ruthless  gaolers, 
forced  to  pay  a  high  price  for  the  least  privilege,  and  treated  worse  than 
brute  cattle  if  destitute  of  money  and  friends.  And  these  were  not  alone 
felons  who  had  broken  some  of  the  many  criminal  laws,  but  men  whose 
guilt  was  not  yet  proved,  and  poor  debtors  whose  only  crime  was  their  mis- 
fortune. And  all  this  in  England,  with  its  boast  of  high  civilization.  The 
people  were  not  ignorant  of  the  condition  of  the  prisons ;  Parliament  was 
appealed  to  a  dozen  times  to  remedy  the  horrors  of  the  jails ;  yet  many 
years  passed  before  it  could  be  induced  to  act. 

Compare  this  state  of  criminal  law  and  prison  discipline  with  that  of 
the  present  day.  Then  cruel  punishments  were  inflicted  for  small  offences  ; 
now  the  lightest  punishments  compatible  with  the  well-being  of  the  com- 


2  6  INTRODUCTION 

munity  are  the  rule.     The  sentiment  of  human  compassion  has  become  strong 

and  compelling ;  it  is  felt  in  the  courts  as  well  as  among  the  people  ;  public 

opinion  has  grown  powerful,  and  a  punishment  to-day  too  severe  for  the 

crime  would   be  visited  with  universal   condemnation.     The 

"nsons  tiuu 

Punishment      treatment  of  felons  has  been  remarkably  ameliorated.     The 
in  1900  modern  prison  is  a  palace  as  compared  with  that  of  a  century 

ago.  The  terrible  jail  fever  which  swept  through  the  old-time  prisons  like  a 
pestilence,  and  was  more  fatal  to  their  inmates  than  the  gallows,  has  been 
stamped  out.  The  idea  of  sanitation  has  made'  its  way  into  the  cell  and 
the  dungeon,  cleanliness  is  enforced,  the  frightful  crowding  of  the  past 
is  not  permitted,  prisoners  are  given  employment,  they  are  not  permitted  to 
infect  one  another  with  vice  or  disease,  kindness  instead  of  cruelty  is  the 
rule,  and  in  no  direction  has  the  world  made  a  greater  and  more  radical 
advance. 

A  century  ago  labor  was  sadly  oppressed.     The   factory  system   had 
recently  begun.     The  independent  hand   and  home  work  of  the  earlier  cen- 
turies was  being  replaced  by  power  and  machine  work.     The 
System°and  the  steam-engine    and   the   labor-saving   machine,  while  bringing 
Oppression  of    blessings   to  mankind,   had   brought  curses    also.     Workmen 
the  Working-    were    crOwded    into    factories    and    mines,    and    were   poorly 
paid,  ill-treated,  ill-housed,  over-worked.      Innocent  little  chil- 
dren were  forced  to  perform  hard  labor  when  they  should  have  been  at  play 
or   at  school.     The  whole  system  was   one  of  white  slavery  of  the  most 
oppressive  kind. 

To-day  this  state  of  affairs  no  longer  exists.  Wages  have  risen,  the 
hours  of  labor  have  decreased,  the  comfort  of  the  artisan  has  grown,  what 
were  once  luxuries  beyond  his  reach  have  now  become  necessaries  of  life- 
Young  children  are  not  permitted  to  work,  and  older  ones  not  beyond  their 
strength.  With  the  influences  which  have  brought  this  about  we  are  not 
here  concerned.  Their  consideration  must  be  left  to  a  later  chapter.  It  is 
enough  here  to  state  the  important  development  that  has  taken  place. 

Perhaps  the  greatest  triumph  of  the  nineteenth  century  has  been  in  the 
domain  of  invention.  For  ages  past  men  have  been  aiding  the  work  of 
their  hands  with  the  work  of  their  brains.  But  the  progress  of  invention 
continued  slow  and  halting,  and  many  tools  centuries  old  were  in  common 
use  until  the  nineteenth  century  dawned.  The  steam-engine  came  earlier, 
and  it  is  this  which  has  stimulated  all  the  rest.  A  power  was  given  to  man 
enormously  greater  than  that  of  his  hands,  and  he  at  once  began  to  devise 
means  of  applying  it.  Several  of  the  important  machines  used  in  manufac- 
ture were  invented  before  1800,  but  it  was  after  that  year  that  the  great  era 


INTRODUCTION  37 

of  invention  began,   and  words  are   hardly  strong  enough   to   express  the 
narvelous  progress  which  has  since  taken  place. 

To  attempt  to  name  all  the  inventions  of  the  nineteenth  The  Era  of 
century  would  be  like  writing  a  dictionary.  Those  of  great  Wonderful 
importance  might  be  named  by  the  hundreds  ;  those  which  inventions 
have  proved  epoch-making  by  the  dozens.  To  manufacture,  to  agriculture, 
to  commerce,  to  all  fields  of  human  labor,  they  extend,  and  their  name  is 
legion.  Standing  on  the  summit  of  this  century  and  looking  backward,  its 
beginning  appears  pitifully  poor  and  meager.  Around  us  to-day  are  hun- 
dreds of  busy  workshops,  filled  with  machinery,  pouring  out  finished  prod- 
ucts with  extraordinary  speed,  men  no  longer  makers  of  goods,  but  waiters 
upon  machines.  In  the  fields  the  grain  is  planted  and  harvested,  the  grass 
cut  and  gathered,  the  ground  ploughed  and  cultivated,  everything  done  by 
machines.  Looking  back  for  a  century,  what  do  we  see  ?  Men  in  the  fields 
with  the  scythe  and  the  sickle,  in  the  barn  with  the  flail,  working  the  ground 
with  rude  old  ploughs  and  harrows,  doing  a  hundred  things  painfully  by 
hand  which  now  they  do  easily  and  rapidly  by  machines.  Verily  the  rate  of 
progress  on  the  farm  has  been  marvelous. 

The  above  are  only  a  few  of  the  directions  of  the  century's  progress. 
In  some  we  may  name,  the  development  has  been  more  extraordinary  still. 
Let  us  consider  the  remarkable  advance  in  methods  of  travel  In  the  year 
1800,  as  for  hundreds  and  even  thousands  of  years  before,  the  horse  was  the 
fastest  means  known  of  traveling  by  land,  the  sail  of  traveling  by  sea.  A 
hundred  years  more  have  passed  over  our  heads,  and  what  do  The  Fate  of  the 
we  behold?  On  all  sides  the  powerful,  and  swift  locomotive,  Horse  and  the 
well  named  the  iron-horse,  rushes  onward,  bound  for  the  ends  of  sail 
the  earth,  hauling  men  and  goods  to  right  and  left  with  a  speed  and  strength 
that  would  have  seemed  magical  to  our  forefathers.  On  the  ocean  the  steam 
engine  performs  .the  same  service,  carrying  great  ships  across  the  Atlantic  in 
less  than  a  week,  and  laughing  at  the  puny  efforts  of  the  sail  The  horse, 
for  ages  indespensible  to  man,  is  threatened  with  banishment.  Electric 
power  has  been  added  to  that  of  steam.  The  automobile  carriage  is  coming 
to  take  the  place  of  the  horse  carriage.  The  steam  plough  is  replacing  the 
horse  plough.  The  time  seems  approaching  when  the  horse  will  cease  to 
be  seen  in  our  streets,  and  may  be  relegated  to  the  zoological  garden. 

In  the  conveyance  of  news  the  development  is  more  like  magic  than 
fact.  A  century  ago  news  could  not  be  transported  faster  than  the  horse 
could  run  or  the  ship  could  sail.  Now  the  words  of  men  can  be  carried 
through  space  faster  than  one  can  breathe.  By  the  aid  of  the  telephone  a 
man  can  speak  to  his  friend  a  thousand  miles  away.  And  with  the  phono- 


28  INTRODUCTION 

graph  we  can,  as  it  were,  bottle  up  speech,  to  be  spoken,  if  desired,  a  thous- 
and years  in  the  future.  Had  we  whispered  those  things  to  our  forefathers 
of  a  century  past  we  should  have  been  set  down  as  wild  romancers  or  insane 
fools,  but  now  they  seem  like  every-day  news. 

These  are  by  no  means  all  the  marvels  of  the  century.  At  its  begin- 
ning the  constitution  of  the  atmosphere  had  been  recently  discovered. 
In  the  preceding  period  it  was  merely  known  as  a  mysterious  gas  called  air. 
To-day  we  can  carry  this  air  about  in  buckets  like  so  much  water,  or  freeze 
it  into  a  solid  like  ice.  In  its  gaseous  state  it  has  long  been  used  as  the 
Dower  to  move  ships  and  windmills.  In  its  liquid  state  it  may  also  soon 
become  a  leading  source  of  power,  and  in  a  measure  replace  steam,  the  great 
power  of  the  century  before. 

In  what  else  does  the  beginning  of  the  twentieth  stand  far  in  advance 
of  that  of  the  nineteenth  century  ?  We  may  contrast  the  tallow  candle 
with  the  electric  light,  the  science  of  to-day  with  that  of  a  century 
Education  Dis-  ag°>  ^e  methods  and  the  extension  of  education  and  the 
covery  and  dissemination  of  books  with  those  of  the  year  1800.  Discovery 
Commerce  anj  colonization  of  the  once  unknown  regions  of  the  world 
have  gone  on  with  marvelous  speed.  The  progress  in  mining  has  been 
enormous,  and  the  production  of  gold  in  the  nineteenth  century  perhaps 
surpasses  that  of  all  previous  time.  Production  of  all  kinds  has  enormously 
increased,  and  commerce  now  extends  to  the  utmost  regions  of  the  earth, 
bearing  the  productions  of  all  climes  to  the  central  seats  of  civilization,  and 
supplying  distant  and  savage  tribes  with  the  products  of  the  loom  and  the 
mine. 

Such  is  a  hasty  review  of  the  condition  of  affairs  at  the  end  of  the 
nineteenth  century  as  compared  with  that  existing  at  its  beginning.  No 
effort  has  been  made  here  to  cover  the  entire  field,  but  enough  has  been 
said  to  show  the  greatness  of  the  world's  progress,  and  we  may  fairly  speak 
of  this  century  as  the  Glorious  Nineteenth. 


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I 


CHAPTER  I. 

The  Threshold  of  the  Century. 

AFTER  its  long  career  of  triumph  and  disaster,  glory  and  shame,  the 
world  stands  to-day  at  the  end  of  an  old  and  the  beginning  of  a  new 
century,  looking  forward  with  hope  and  backward  with  pride,  for  it 
has  just  completed  the  most  wonderful  hundred  years  it  has  ever  known, 
and  has  laid  a  noble  foundation  for  the  twentieth  century,  now  at  its 
dawn.  There  can  be  no  more  fitting  time  than  this  to  review  the  marvelous 
progress  of  the  closing  century,  through  a  portion  of  which  The  Age  we  Live 
all  of  us  have  lived,  many  of  us  through  a  great  portion  of  in  and  its 
it.  Some  of  the  greatest  of  its  events  have  taken  place  before  Qreat  Events 
our  own  eyes  ;  in  some  of  them  many  now  living  have  borne  a  part ;  to 
picture  them  again  to  our  mental  vision  cannot  fail  to  be  of  interest  and 
profit  to  us  all. 

When,  after  a  weary  climb,  we  find  ourselves  on  the  summit  of  a  lofty 
mountain,  and  look  back  from  that  commanding  altitude  over  the  ground 
we  have  traversed,  what  is  it  that  we  behold  ?  The  minor  details  of  the 
scenery,  many  of  which  seemed  large  and  important  to  us  as  we  passed,  are 
now  lost  to  view,  and  we  see  only  the  great  and  imposing  features  of  the 
landscape,  the  high  elevations,  the  town-studded  valleys,  the  deep  and 
winding  streams,  the  broad  forests.  It  is  the  same  when,  from  the  summit 
of  an  age,  we  gaze  backward  over  the  plain  of  time.  The  myriad  of  petty 
happenings  are  lost  to  sight,  and  we  see  only  the  striking  events,  the  critical 
epochs,  the  mighty  crises  through  which  the  world  has  passed.  True  History 
These  are  the  things  that  make  true  history,  not  the  daily  and  the  Things 
doings  in  the  king's  palace  or  the  peasant's  hut.  What  we  whlch  Makeit 
should  seek  to  observe  and  store  up  in  our  memories  are  the  turning  points 
in  human  events,  the  great  thoughts  which  have  ripened  into  noble  deeds, 
the  hands  of  might  which  have  pushed  the  world  forward  in  its  career  ;  not 
the  trifling  occurrences  which  signify  nothing,  the  passing  actions  which 
have  borne  no  fruit  in  human  affairs.  It  is  with  such  turning  points,  such 
critical  periods  in  the  history  of  the  nineteenth  century,  that  this  work  pro- 
poses to  deal  ;  not  to  picture  the  passing  bubbles  on  the  stream  of  time,  but 
to  point  out  the  great  ships  which  have  sailed  up  that  stream  laden  deep 
3  (#0 


34  THE  THRESHOLD  OF  THE  CENTURY 

with  a  noble  freight.  This  is  history  in  its  deepest  and  best  aspect,  and  we 
have  set  our  camera  to  photograph  only  the  men  who  have  made  and  the 
e^'ents  which  constitute  this  true  history  of  the  nineteenth  century. 

On  the  threshold  of  the  century  with  which  we  have  to  deal  two  grand 
events  stand  forth  ;  two  of  those  masterpieces  of  political  evolution  which 
mold  the  world  and  fashion  the  destiny  of  mankind.  These  are,  in  the 
Eastern  hemisphere,  the  French  Revolution  ;  in  the  Western  hemisphere, 
the  American  Revolution  and  the  founding  of  the  republic  of  the  United 
Two  of  the  States.  In  the  whole  history  of  the  world  there  are  no  events 
World's  Great-  that  surpass  these  in  importance,  and  they  may  fitly  be  dwelt 
est  Events  upon  as  main  foundation  stones  in  the  structure  we  are  seek- 
ing to  build.  The  French  Revolution  shaped  the  history  of  Europe  for 
nearly  a  quarter  century  after  1800.  The  American  Revolution  shaped  the 
history  of  America  fora  still  longer  period,  and  is  now  beginning  to  shape  the 
history  of  the  world.  It  is  important  therefore  that  we  dwell  on  those  two 
events  sufficiently  to  show  the  part  they  have  played  in  the  history  of  the 
ao-e.  Here,  however,  we  shall  confine  our  attention  to  the  Revolution  in 

£> 

France.    That  in  America  must  be  left  to  the  American  section  of  our  work. 

The  Mediaeval  Age  was  the  age  of  Feudalism,  that  remarkable  system 

of  government  based  on  military  organization  which   held  western   Europe 

The  Feudal  Sys-  captive   for  centuries.     The   State  was  an  army,  the  nobility 

tem  and  its       its  captains  and  generals,  the  king  its  commander-in-chief,  the 

people   its   rank  and  file.     As  for  the  horde  of  laborers,  they 

were  hardly  considered  at  all.     They  were  the  hewers  of  wood  and  drawers 

of  water  for  the  armed  and  fighting  class,  a  base,  down-trodden,  enslaved 

multitude,  destitute  of  rights  and  privileges,  their  only  mission  in  the  world 

to  provide  food  for  and  pay  taxes  to  their  masters,  and   often  doomed   to 

starve  in  the  midst  of  the  food  which  their  labor  produced. 

France,  the  country  in  which  the  Feudal  system  had  its  birth,  was  the 
country  in  which  it  had  the  longest  lease  of  life.  It  came  down  to  the  verge 
of  the  nineteenth  century  with  little  relief  from  its  terrible  exactions.  We 
see  before  us  in  that  country  the  spectacle  of  a  people  steeped  in  misery, 
crushed  by  tyranny,  robbed  of  all  political  rights,  and  without  a  voice  to 
make  their  sufferings  known  ;  and  of  an  aristocracy  lapped  in  luxury,  proud, 
vain,  insolent,  lavish  with  the  people's  money,  ruthless  with  the  people's 
blood,  and  blind  to  the  spectre  of  retribution  which  rose  higher  year  by  year 
before  their  eyes. 

One  or  two  statements  must  suffice  to  show  the  frightful  injustice  that 
prevailed.  The  nobility  and  the  Church,  those  who  held  the  bulk  of  the 
wealth  of  the  community,  were  relieved  of  all  taxation,  the  whole  burden  of 


THE  THRESHOLD  OF  THE  CENTURY  35 

which  fell  upon  the  mercantile  and  laboring  classes — an  unfair  exaction  that 
threatened  to  crush  industry  out  of  existence.  And  to  picture  the  condition 
of  the  peasantry,  the  tyranny  of  the  feudal  customs,  it  will  serve  to  repeat 
the  oft-told  tale  of  the  peasants  who,  after  their  day's  hard  labor  in  the 
fields,  were  forced  to  beat  the  ponds  all  night  long  in  order  to  silence  the 
croaking  of  the  frogs  that  disturbed  some  noble  lady's  slumbers.  iMothing 
need  be  added  to  these  two  instances  to  show  the  oppression  under  which 
the  people  of  France  lay  during  the  long  era  of  Feudalism. 

This  era  of  injustice  and  oppression  reached  its  climax  in    The  Climax  of 
the  closing  years  of  the  eighteenth  century,  and  went  down  at      Feudalism  in 
length  in  that  hideous  nightmare  of  blood   and   terror  known 
as  the  French  Revolution.      Frightful  as  this  was,  it  was  unavoidable.     The 
pride  and  privilege  of  the  aristocracy  had  the  people  by  the  throat,  and  only 
the  sword  or  the  guillotine  could  loosen  their  hold.    In  this  terrible  instance 
the  guillotine  did  the  work. 

It  was  the  need  of  money  for  the  spendthrift  throne  that  precipitated 
the  Revolution.  For  years  the  indignation  of  the  people  had  been  growing 
and  spreading  ;  for  years  the  authors  of  the  nation  had  been  adding  fuel  to 
the  flame.  The  voices  of  Voltaire,  Rousseau  and  a  dozen  others  had  been 
heard  in  advocacy  of  the  rights  of  man,  and  the  people  were  growing  daily 
more  restive  under  their  load.  But  still  the  lavish  waste  of  money  wrung 
from  the  hunger  and  sweat  of  the  people  went  on,  until  the  king  and  his 
advisers  found  their  coffers  empty  and  were  without  hope  of  filling  them 
without  a  direct  appeal  to  the  nation  at  large. 

It  was   in  1788   that  the   fatal   step   was   taken.      Louis  XVI,  King  of 
France,  called  a  session  of  the  States  General,  the  Parliament   The  states 
of  the  kingdom,  which  had  not  met  for  more  than  a  hundred      General  is 
years.     This  body  was  composed  of  three  classes,  the  repre-      Conven 
sentatives  of  the  nobility,  of  the   church,  and  of  the  people.      In  all  earlier 
instances  they  had  been  docile  to  the  mandate  of  the  throne,  and  the  mon- 
arch, blind  to  the  signs  of  the  times,  had  no  thought  but  that  this  assembly 
would  vote  him  the  money  he  asked  for,  fix  by  law  a  system  of  taxation  for 
his  future  supply,  and  dissolve  at  his  command. 

He  was  ignorant  of  the  temper  of  the  people.  They  had  been  given  a 
voice  at  last,  and  were  sure  to  take  the  opportunity  to  speak  their  mind. 
Their  representatives,  known  as  the  Third  Estate,  were  made  up  of  bold, 
earnest,  indignant  men,  who  asked  for  bread  and  were  not  to  be  put  off 
with  a  crust.  They  were  twice  as  numerous  as  the  representatives  of  the 
nobles  and  the  clergy,  and  thus  held  control  of  the  situation.  They  were 
ready  to  support  the  throne,  but  refused  to  vote  a  penny  until  the  crying 


36  THE  THRESHOLD  OF  THE  CENTU&Y 

evils  of  the  State  were  reformed.  They  broke  loose  from  the  other  two 
Estates,  established  a  separate  parliament  under  the  name  of  the  National 
Assembly,  and  begun  that  career  of  revolution  which  did  not  cease  until  it 
had  brought  monarchy  to  an  end  in  France  and  set  all  Europe  aflame. 

The  court  sought  to  temporize  with  the  engine  of  destruction  which  it 
had  called  into  existence,  prevaricated,  played  fast  and  loose,  and  with 
every  false  move  riveted  the  fetters  of  revolution  more  tightly  round  'its 
neck.  In  July,  1789,  the  people  of  Paris  took  a  hand  in  the  game.  They 
rose  and  destroyed  the  Bastille,  that  grim  and  terrible  State 
The  Fall  of  prison  into  which  so  many  of  the  best  and  noblest  of  France 

the  Bastille  '  .... 

had  been  cast  at  the  pleasure  ot  the  monarch  and  his  min- 
isters, and  which  the  people  looked  upon  as  the  central  fortress  of  their 
oppression  and  woe. 

With  the  fall  of  the  Bastille  discord  everywhere  broke  loose,  the  spirit 
of  the  Revolution  spread  from  Paris  through  all  France,  and  the  popular 
Assembly,  now  the  sole  law-making  body  of  the  State,  repealed  the  oppres- 
sive laws  of  which  the  people  complained,  and  with  a  word  overturned 
abuses  many  of  which  were  a  thousand  years  old.  It  took  from  the  nobles 
their  titles  and  privileges,  and  reduced  them  to  the  rank  of  simple  citizens. 
It  confiscated  the  vast  landed  estates  of  the  church,  which  embraced  nearly 
one-third  of  France.  It  abolished  the  tithes  and  the  unequal  taxes,  uhi'ch 
had  made  the  clergy  and  nobles  rich  and  the  people  poor.  At  a  later  date, 
in  the  madness  of  reaction,  it  enthroned  the  Goddess  of  Reason  and  sought 
to  abolish  religion  and  all  the  time-honored  institutions  of  the  past. 

The  Revolution  grew,  month  by  month  and  day  by  day.  New  and 
more  radical  laws  were  passed  ;  moss-grown  abuses  were  swept  away  in  an 
hour's  sitting ;  the  king,  who  sought  to  escape,  was  seized  and  held  as  a 
hostage  ;  and  war  was  boldly  declared  against  Austria  and  Prussia,  which 
showed  a  disposition  to  interfere.  In  November,  1792,  the  French  army 
gained  a  brilliant  victory  at  Jemmapes,  in  Belgium,  which  eventually  led  to 
the  conquest  of  that  kingdom  by  France.  It  was  the  first  important  event 
in  the  career  of  victory  which  in  the  coming  years  was  to  make  France 
glorious  in  the  annals  of  war. 

King  and  Queen  The    hostility  of   the  surrounding  nations  added  to  the 

Under  the         revolutionary  fury  in  France.     Armies  were  marching  to  the 

rescue  of  the  king,  and  the  unfortunate  monarch  was  seized, 

reviled  and  insulted  by  the  mob,  and  incarcerated  in  the  prison  called  the 

Temple.     The   queen,    Marie    Antoinette,    daughter    of    the    Emperor   of 

Austria,  was  likewise  haled  from  the  palace  to  the  prison.     In  the  following 

year,  1793,  king  and  queen  alike  were  taken   to  the  guillotine  and  their 


THE  THRESHOLD  OF  THE  CENTURY  39 

royal  heads  fell  into  the  fatal  basket.  The  Revolution  was  consummated, 
the  monarchy  was  at  an  end,  France  had  fallen  into  the  hands  of  the 
people,  and  from  them  it  descended  into  the  hands  of  a  ruthless  and  blcod- 
thirsty  mob. 

At  the  head  of   this   mob  of   revolutionists  stood   three   men,  Danton, 
Marat,   and    Robespierre,   the  triumvirate  of    the  Reign  of    Terror,   under 
which    all    safety    ceased    in    France,    and    all    those    against 
whom  the  least  breath  of  suspicion  arose  were  crowded  into      Terro?" ' 
prison,    from   which   hosts   of  them   made   their  way    to    the 
dreadful  knife  of  the  guillotine.     Multitudes  of  the  rich  and  noble  had  fled 
from  France,  among  them   Lafayette,  the  friend  and  aid  of  Washington  in 
the  American -Revolution,  and  Talleyrand,  the  acute  statesman  who  was  to 
play  a  prominent  part  in  later  French  history. 

Marat,  the  most  savage  of  the  triumvirate,  was  slain  m  July,  1/93,  by 
the  knife  of  Charlotte  Corday,  a  young  woman  of  pious  training,  who 
offered  herself  as  the  instrument  of  God  for  the  removal  of  this  infamous 
monster  His  death  rather  added  to  than  stayed  the  tide  of  blood,  and  in  April, 
1794,  Danton,  who  sought  to  check  its  flow,  fell  a  victim  to  his  ferocious 
associate.  But  the  Reign  of  Terror  was  nearing  its  end.  In  July  the 
Assembly  awoke  from  its  stupor  of  fear,  Robespierre  was  denounced,  seized, 
and  executed,  and  the  frightful  carnival  of  bloodshed  came  to  an  end.  The 
work  of  the  National  Assembly  had  been  fully  consummated,  Feudalism 
was  at  an  end,  monarchy  in  France  had  ceased,  and  a  republic  had  taken 
its  place,  and  a  new  era  for  Europe  had  dawned. 

Meanwhile  a  foreign  war  was  being  waged.      England  had    The  Wars  of 
formed  a  coalition  with  most  of  the    nations  of  Europe,  and       the  French 
France  was  threatened  by  land  with  the  troops   of   Holland,       Revolution 
Prussia,  Austria,  Spain  and   Portugal,  and   by  sea  with  the   fleet  of   Great 
Britain.     The  incompetency  of  her  assailants  saved    her  from  destruction. 
Her  generals  who  lost  battles  were  sent  to  prison  or  to  the  guillotine,  the 
whole  country  rose  as  one  man  in  defence,  and  a  number  of  brilliant  victor- 
ies drove  her  enemies  from  her  borders  and  gave  the  armies   of  France  a 
position  beyond  the  Rhine. 

These  wars  soon  brought  a  great  man  to  the  front,  Napoleon   Bona- 
parte, a  son  of  Corsica,  with  whose  nineteenth  century  career  we  shall  deal  at 
length    in    the    following    chapters,    but    of    whose    earlier   exploits   some- 
thing must  be  said  here.      His  career  fairly  began  in  1794,  when,  under  the 
ders  of  the  National  Convention — the  successor  of  the  National  Assembly 
-he  quelled  the  mob  in  the  streets  of  Paris  with  loaded  cannon  and  put  a 
final  end  to  the  Terror  which  had  so  long  prevailed. 


4o  THE  THRESHOLD  OF  THE  CENTURY 

Placed  at  the  head  of  the  French  army  in  Italy,  he  quickly  astonished 
the  world  by  a  series  of  the  most  brilliant  victories,  defeating  the  Austrians 
and  the  Sardinians  wherever  he  met  them,  seizing  Venice,  the  city  of  the 
lagoon,  and  forcing  almost  all  Italy  to  submit  to  his  arms.  A  republic 
was  established  here  and  a  new  one  in  Switzerland,  while  Belgium  and  the 
left  bank  of  the  Rhine  were  held  by  France. 
Na  oieonin  ^s  wars  nere  at  an  end,  Napoleon's  ambition  led  him  to 

Italy  and          Egypt,  inspired  by  great  designs  which  he  failed  to  realize. 

Egypt-  jn  m's  absence  anarchy  arose  in  France.     The  five  Directors, 

then  at  the  head  of  the  Government,  had  lost  all  authority,  and  Napoleon, 
who  had  unexpectedly  returned,  did  not  hesitate  to  overthrow  them  and 
the  Assembly  which  supported  them.  A  new  government,  with  three 
Consuls  at  its  head,  was  formed,  Napoleon  as  First  Consul  holding  almost 
royal  power.  Thus  France  stood  in  1800,  at  the  end  of  the  Eighteenth 
Century. 

In  the  remainder  of  Europe  there  was  nothing  to  compare  with  the 
momentous  convulsion  which  had  taken  place  in  France.  England  had 
gone  through  its  two  revolutions  more  than  a  century  before,  and  its  people 
were  the  freest  of  any  in  Europe.  Recently  it  had  lost  its  colonies  in 
America,  but  it  still  held  in  that  continent  the  broad  domain  of  Canada, 
and  was  building  for  itself  a  new  empire  in  India,  while  founding  colonies 
in  twenty  other  lands.  In  commerce  and  manufactures  it  entered  the  nine- 
En  land  as  a  teenth  century  as  the  greatest  nation  on  the  earth.  The 

Centre  of          hammer  and  the  loom  resounded   from  end  to   end    of   the 

industry  and     island,  mighty  centres   of   industry    arose   where    cattle    had 

Commerce.  -  ,     .  . 

grazed  a  century  before,  coal  and  iron  were  being  torn  in 
great  quantities  from  the  depths  of  the  earth,  and  there  seemed  everywhere 
an  endless  bustle  and  whirr.  The  ships  of  England  haunted  all  seas  and 
visited  the  most  remote  ports,  laden  with  the  products  of  her  workshops  and 
bringing  back  raw  material  for  her  factories  and  looms.  Wealth  accumu- 
lated, London  became  the  money  market  of  the  world,  the  riches  and  pros- 
perity of  the  island  kingdom  were  growing  to  be  a  parable  among  the 
nations  of  the  earth. 

On  the  continent  of  Europe,  Prussia,  which  has  now  grown  so  great,  had 
recently  emerged  from  its  mediaeval  feebleness,  mainly  under  the  powerful 
hand  of  Frederick  the  Great,  whose  reign  extended  until  1786,  and  whose 
ambition,  daring,  and  military  genius  made  him  a  fitting  predecessor  of 
Napoleon  the  Great,  who  so  soon  succeeded  him  in  the  annals  of  war. 
Unscrupulous  in  his  aims,  this  warrior  king  had  torn  Silesia  from  Austria, 
added  to  his  kingdom  a  portion  of  unfortunate  Poland,  annexed  the  princi- 


THE  THRESHOLD  OF  THE  CENTURY  41 

pality  of  East  Friesland,  and  lifted  Prussia  into  a  leading  position  among 
the  European  states. 

Germany,  now — with  the  exception  of  Austria — a  compact  The  condition 
empire,  was  then  a  series  of  disconnected  states,  variously  of  the  German 
known  as  kingdoms,  principalities,  margravates,  electorates, 
and  by  other  titles,  the  whole  forming  the  so-called  Holy  Empire,  though 
it  was  "  neither  holy  nor  an  empire."  It  had  drifted  down  in  this  fashion 
from  the  Middle  Ages,  and  the  work  of  consolidation  had  but  just  begun, 
in  the  conquests  of  Frederick  the  Great.  A  host  of  petty  potentates  ruled 
the  land,  whose  states,  aside  from  Prussia  and  Austria,  were  too  weak  to 
have  a  voice  in  the  councils  of  Europe.  Joseph  II.,  the  titular  emperor  of 
Germany,  made  an  earnest  and  vigorous  effort  to  combine  its  elements  into 
a  powerful  unit;  but  he  signally  failed,  and  died  in  1790,  a  disappointed 
and  embittered  man. 

Austria,  then  far  the  most  powerful  of  the  German  states,  was  from 
1740  to  1780  under  the  reign  of  a  woman,  Maria  Theresa,  who  struggled 
in  vain  against  her  ambitious  neighbor,  Frederick  the  Great,  his  kingdom 
being  extended  ruthlessly  at  the  expense  of  her  imperial  dominions. 
Austria  remained  a  great  country,  however,  including  Bohemia  and  Hun- 
gary among  its  domains.  It  was  lord  of  Lombardy  and  Venice  in  Italy,  and 
was  destined  to  play  an  important  but  unfortunate  part  in  the  coming 
Napoleonic  wars. 

The  peninsula  of   Italy,  the  central  seat   of  the  great  Roman  Empire, 
was,   at   the  opening  of    the    nineteenth  century,    as  sadly  broken    up    as 
Germany,  a  dozen  weak  states  taking  the  place  of  the  one  strong  one  that 
the  good  of  the  people  demanded.     The  independent  cities  of  the  mediaeval 
period  no  longer  held  sway,  and  we  hear  no  more  of  wars  between  Florence, 
Genoa,  Milan,  Pisa  and  Rome  ;  but  the  country  was  still  made  up  of  minor 
states — Lombardy,  Venice    and  Sardinia  in  the  north,  Naples    Dissension  in 
in  the  south,  Rome  in  the  centre,  and  various  smaller  king-      Italy  and 
dorns  and  dukedoms  between.     The  peninsula  was  a  prey  to       Decay  in 
turmoil  and  dissension.     Germany  and   France  had  made  it 
their   fighting  ground   for  centuries,   Spain   had   filled  the  south  with  her 
armies,  and  the  country  had  been  miserably  torn  and  rent  by  these  frequent 
wars  and  those  between  state  and  state,  and  was  in  a  condition  to  welcome 
the  coming   of  Napoleon,   whose   strong  hand  for  the  time   promised  the 
blessing  of  peace  and  union. 

Spain,  not  many  centuries  before  the  greatest  nation  in  Europe,  and,  as 
such,  the  greatest  nation  on  the  globe,  had  miserably  declined  in  power  and 
place  at  the  opening  of  the  nineteenth  century.  Under  the  emperor  Charles  I. 


42  THE  THRESHOLD  OF  THE  CENTURY 

it  had  been  united  with  Germany,  while  its  colonies  embraced  two-thirds 
of  the  great  continent  of  America.  Under  Philip  II.  it  continued  power- 
ful in  Europe,  but  with  his  death  its  decay  set  in.  Intolerance  checked 
its  growth  in  civilization,  the  gold  brought  from  America  was  swept  away 
by  more  enterprising  states,  its  strength  was  sapped  by  a  succession  of  fee- 
ble monarchs,  and  from  first  place  it  fell  into  a  low  rank  among  the  nations 
of  Europe.  It  still  held  its  vast  colonial  area,  but  this  proved  a  source  of 
weakness  rather  than  of  strength,  and  the  people  of  the  colonies,  exasper- 
ated by  injustice  and  oppression,  were  ready  for  the  general  revolt  which 
was  soon  to  take  place.  Spain  presented  the  aspect  of  a  great  nation  ruined 
by  its  innate  vices,  impoverished  by  official  venality  and  the  decline  of 
industry,  and  fallen  into  the  dry  rot  of  advancing  decay. 

Of  the  nations  of  Europe  which  had  once  played  a  prominent  part,  one 
was  on  the  point  of  being  swept  from  the  map.  The  name  of 
Poland  by  the  Poland,  which  formerly -stood  for  a  great  power,  now  stands 
Robber  Na-  onjy  for  a  great  crime.  The  misrule  of  the  kings,  the  turbu- 
lence of  the  nobility,  and  the  enslavement  of  the  people  had 
brought  that  state  into  such  a  condition  of  decay  that  it  lay  like  a  rotten 
log  amid  the  powers  of  Europe. 

The  ambitious  nations  surrounding — Russia,  Austria,  and  Prussia — took 
advantage  of  its  weakness,  and  in  1772  each  of  them  seized  the  portion  of 
Poland  that  bordered  on  its  own  territories.  In  the  remainder  of  the  king- 
dom the  influence  of  Russia  grew  so  great  that  the  Russian  ambassador  at 
Warsaw  became  the  real  ruler  in  Poland.  A  struggle  against  Russia  began 
in  1792,  Kosciusko,  a  brave  soldier  who  had  fought  under  Washington  in 
America,  being  at  the  head  of  the  patriots.  But  the  weakness  of  the  king 
tied  the  hands  of  the  soldiers,  the  Polish  patriots  left  their  native  land  in 
despair,  and  in  the  following  year  Prussia  and  Russia  made  a  further 
division  of  the  state,  Russia  seizing  a  broad  territory  with  more  than  3,000,- 
ooo  inhabitants. 

In  1794  a  new  outbreak  began.  The  patriots  returned  and  a  desperate 
struggle  took  place.  But  Poland  was  doomed.  Suvoroff,  the  greatest  of 
the  Russian  generals,  swept  the  land  with  fire  and  sword.  Kosciusko  fell 
wounded,  crying,  "  Poland's  end  has  come,"  and  Warsaw  was  taken  and 
desolated  by  its  assailants.  The  patriot  was  right ;  the  end  had  come. 
What  remained  of  Poland  was  divided  up  between  Austria,  Prussia,  and 
Russia,  and  only  a  name  remained. 

There  are  two  others  of  the  powers  of  Europe  of  which  we  must  speak, 
Russia  and  Turkey.  Until  th  >  seventeenth  century  Russia  had  been  a  do- 
main of  barbarians,  weak  and  Disunited,  and  for  a  long  period  the  vassal  of 


THE  THRESHOLD  OF  THE  CENTURY 


43 


the  savage  Mongol  conquerors  of  Asia.  Under  Peter  the  Great  (1689- 
1725)  it  rose  into  power  and  prominence,  took  its  place  among 
civilized  states,  and  began  that  career  of  conquest  and  expan- 
sion  which  is  still  going  on.  At  the  end  of  the  eighteenth 
century  it  was  under  the  rule  of  Catharine  II.,  often  miscalled  Catharine  the 
Great,  who  died  in  1796,  just  as  Napoleon  was  beginning  his  career.  Her 
greatness  lay  in  the  ability  of  her  generals,  who  defeated  Turkey  and  con- 
quered the  Crimea,  and  who  added  the  greater  part  of  Poland  to  her  empire. 
Her  strength  of  mind  and  decision  of  character  were  not  shared  by  her 
successor,  Paul  I.,  and  Russia  entered  the  nineteenth  century  under  the 
weakest  sovereign  of  the  Romanoff  line. 

Turkey,  once  the  terror  of  Europe,  and  sending  its  armies  into  the  heart 
of  Austria,  was  now  confined  within  the  boundaries  it  had  long  before  won, 
and  had  begun  its  long  struggle  for  existence  with  its  powerful  neighbor, 
Russia.  At  the  beginning  of  the  nineteenth  century  it  was  still  a  powerful 
state,  with  a  wide  domain  in  Europe,  and  continued  to  defy  the  Christians 
who  coveted  its  territory  and  sought  its  overthrow.  But  the  canker-worm  of 
a  weak  and  barbarous  government  was  at  its  heart,  while  its  cruel  treatment 
of  its  Christian  subjects  exasperated  the  strong  powers  of  Europe  and 
invited  their  armed  interference. 

As  regards  the  world  outside  of  Europe  and  America,  no  part  of  it  had 
yet  entered  the  circle  of  modern  civilization.  Africa  was  an  almost  unknown 
continent;  Asia  was  little  better  known  ;  and  the  islands  of  the  Eastern  seas 
were  still  in  process  of  discovery.  Japan,  which  was  approaching  its  period 
of  manumission  from  barbarism,  was  still  closed  to  the  world,  and  China  lay 
like  a  huge  and  helpless  bulk,  fast  in  the  fetters  of  conservaf  /*rn  and  blind 
self-sufficiency. 


CHAPTER   II. 

Napoleon  Bonaparte;  The  Man  of  Destiny. 

THE  first  fifteen  years  of  the  nineteenth  century  in  Europe  yield  us  the 
history  of  a  man,  rather  than  of  a  continent.  France  was  the  centre 
of  Europe;  Napoleon,  the  Corsican,  was  the  centre  of  France.  All  the 
affairs  of  all  the  nations  seemed  to  gather  around  this  genius  of  war.  He 
was  respected,  feared,  hated  ;  he  had  risen  with  the  suddenness  of  a  thunder- 
cloud on  a  clear  horizon,  and  flashed  the  lightnings  of  victory  in  the  dazzled 
eyes  of  the  nations.  All  the  evrnts  of  the  period  were  concentrated  into 
one  great  event,  and  the  name  of  that  event  was  Napoleon.  He  seemed 
incarnate  war,  organized  destruction  ;  sword  in  hand  he  dominated  the 
nations,  and  victory  sat  on  his  banners  with  folded  wings.  He  was,  in  a  full 
sense,  the  man  of  destiny,  and  Europe  was  his  prey. 

Never  has  there  been  a  more  wonderful  career.     The   earlier  great 
conquerors  began  life  at  the  top  ;  Napoleon  began  his  at  the 

A  Remarkable  AII  1-^  • 

Man  and  a        bottom.     Alexander  was  a  king  ;  Caesar  was  an  aristocrat  ot 

Wonderful       the   Roman   republic ;   Napoleon    rose   from    the   people,  and 

was  not  even  a  native  of  the 'land  which  became  the  scene  of 

his  exploits.      Pure   force  of  military  genius  lifted  him   from  the  lowest  to 

the  highest  place  among  mankind,  and   for  long  and  terrible  years  Europe 

shuddered   at  his  name  and  trembled  beneath  the  tread   of  his  marching 

legions.     As  for  France,  he  brought  it  glory,  and  left  it  ruin  and  dismay. 

We  have  briefly  epitomized  Napoleon's  early  career,  his  doings  in  the 
Revolution,  in  Italy,  and  in  Egypt,  unto  the  time  that  France's  worship  of 
his  military  genius  raised  him  to  the  rank  of  First  Consul,  and  gave  him  in 
effect  the  power  of  a  king.  No  one  dared  question  his  word,  the  army  was 
at  his  beck  and  call,  the  nation  lay  prostrate  at  his  feet — not  in  fear  but  in 
admiration.  Such  was  the  state  of  affairs  in  France  in  the  closing  year  of 
the  eighteenth  century.  The  Revolution  was  at  an  end  ;  the  Republic  existed 
only  as  a  name  ;  Napoleon  was  the  autocrat  of  France  and  the  terror  of 
Europe.  From  this  point  we  resume  the  story  of  his  career. 

The    First  Consul  began    his  reign    with    two    enemies    in    the    field, 

The  Enemies       England  and  Austria.      Prussia  was  neutral,  and  he  had  won 

and  Friends  of  the  friendship  of  Paul,  the  emperor  of  Russia,  by  a  shrewd 

move.     While    the    other    nations    refused    to    exchange   the 

Russian  prisoners  they  held,  Napoleon  sent  home  6,000  of  these  captives, 

(44) 


NAPOLEON  BONAPARTE— THE  MAN  OF  DESTINY  45 

newly  clad  and  armed,  under  their  own  leaders,  and  without  demanding 
ransom.  This  was  enough  to  win  to  his  side  the  weak-minded  Paul,  whose 
delight  in  soldiers  he  well  knew. 

Napoleon  now  had  but  two  enemies  in  arms  to  deal  with.  He  wrote 
letters  to  the  king  of  England  and  the  emperor  of  Austria,  offering  peace. 
The  answers  were  cold  and  insulting,  asking  France  to  take  back  her  Boui 
bon  kings  and  return  to  her  old  boundaries.  Nothing  remained  but  war. 
Napoleon  prepared  for  it  with  his  usual  rapidity,  secrecy,  and  keenness  of 
judgment 

There  were  two  French  armies  in  the  field  in  the  spring  of  1800, 
Moreau  commanding  in  Germany,  Massena  in  Italy.  Switzerland,  which 
was  occupied  by  the  French,  divided  the  armies  of  the  enemy,  and  Napo- 
leon determined  to  take  advantage  of  the  separation  of  their  forces,  and 
strike  an  overwhelming  blow.  He  sent  word  to  Moreau  and  Massena  to 
keep  the  enemy  in  check  at  any  cost,  and  secretly  gathered  a  third  army, 
whose  corps  were  dispersed  here  and  there,  while  the  powers  of  Europe 
were  aware  only  of  the  army  of  reserve  at  Dijon,  made  up  of  conscripts  and 
invalids. 

Meanwhile  the  armies  in  Italy  and  Germany  were  doing  their  best  to 
obey  orders.  Massena  was  attacked  by  the  Austrians  before  , 

J  ,  .  Movements  of 

he  could  concentrate  his  troops,  his  army  was  cut  in  two,  and  the  Armies  in 
he  was  forced  to  fall  back  upon  Genoa,  in  which  city  he  was  Germany  and 
closely  besieged,  with  a  fair  prospect  of  being  conquered  by 
starvation  if  not  soon  relieved.  Moreau  was  more  fortunate.  He  defeated 
the  Austrians  in  a  series  of  battles  and  drove  them  back  on  Ulm,  where  he 
blockaded  them  in  their  camp.  All  was  ready  for  the  great  movement 
which  Napoleon  had  in  view. 

Twenty  centuries  before  Hannibal  had  led  his  army  across  the  great 
mountain  barrier  of  the  Alps,  and  poured  down  like  an  avalanche  upon  the 
fertile  plains  of  Italy.  The  Corsican  determined  to  repeat  this  brilliant 
achievement  and  emulate  Hannibal's  career.  Several  passes  across  the 
mountains  seemed  favorable  to  his  purpose,  especially  those  of  the  St. 
Bernard,  the  Simplon  and  Mont  Cenis.  Of  these  the  first  was  the  most 
difficult ;  but  it  was  much  the  shorter,  and  Napoleon  determined  to  lead  the 
main  body  of  his  army  over  this  ice-covered  mountain  pass,  despite  its 
dangers  and  difficulties.  The  enterprise  was  one  to  deter  any  man  less 
bold  than  Hannibal  or  Napoleon,  but  it  was  welcome  to  the  hardihood  and 
daring  of  these  men,  who  rejoiced  in  the  seemingly  impossible  and  spurned 
at  hardships  and  perils. 

The  task  of  the  Corsican  was  greater  than  that  of  the  Carthaginian. 


46  NAPOLEON  BONAPARTE— THE  MAN  OF  DESTINY 

He  had  cannon  to  transport,  while  Hannibal's  men  carried  only  swords  and 

spears.     But  the  genius  of  Napoleon  was  equal  to  the  task. 

Crosses  the       The  cannon  were  taken  from  their  carriages  and  placed  in  the 

Alps  at  St.        hollowed-out  trunks   of  trees,   which  could  be  dragged   with 

Bernard  Pass    rOpes  Over  the  ice  and  snow.     Mules  were  used  to  draw  the 

gun-carriages  and  the  wagon-loads  of  food  and  munitions  of  war.     Stores 

of  provisions  had  been  placed  at  suitable  points  along  the  road. 

Thus  prepared,  Napoleon,  on  the  i6th  of  May,  1800,  began  his  remark- 
able march,  while  smaller  divisions  of  the  army  were  sent  over  the  Simplon, 
the  St.  Gothard  and  Mont  Cenis  passes.  It  was  an  arduous  enterprise. 
The  mules  proved  unequal  to  the  task  given  to  them  ;  the  peasants  refused 
to  aid  in  this  severe  work ;  the  soldiers  were  obliged  to  harness  themselves 
to  the  cannon,  and  drag  them  by  main  strength  over  the  rocky  and  ice- 
covered  mountain  path.  The  First  Consul  rode  on  a  mule  at  the  head  of 
the  rear-guard,  serene  and  cheerful,  chatting  with  his  guide  as  with  a  friend, 
and  keeping  up  the  courage  of  the  soldiers  by  his  own  indomitable  spirit. 

A  few  hours'  rest  at  the  hospice  of  St.  Bernard,  and  the  descent  was 
begun,  an  enterprise  even  more  difficult  than  the  ascent.  For  five  days  the 
dread  journey  continued,  division  following  division,  corps  succeeding  corps. 
The  point  of  greatest  peril  was  reached  at  Aosta,  where,  on  a  precipitous 
rock,  stood  the  little  Austrian  fort  of  Bard,  its  artillery  commanding  the 
narrow  defile. 

It  was  night  when  the  vanguard  reached  this  threatening  spot.  It  was 
passed  in  dead  silence,  tow  being  wrapped  round  the  wheels  of  the  carriages 
and  a.  layer  of  straw  and  refuse  spread  on  the  frozen  ground,  while  the 
troops  followed  a  narrow  path  over  the  neighboring  mountains.  By  day- 
break the  passage  was  made  and  the  danger  at  an  end. 

The  sudden  appearance  of  the  French  in   Italy  was  an  utter  surprise  to 

the  Austrians.     They  descended  like  a  torrent  into  the  valley,  seized  Ivry, 

and  five  days  after  reaching  Italy  met  and  repulsed  an  Austrian  force.     The 

divisions  which  had  crossed  by  other  passes  one  by  one  joined 

in  Italy  Napoleon.      Melas,  the  Austrian  commander,  was  warned  of 

the  danger  that  impended,  but  refused  to  credit  the  seemingly 

preposterous  story.     His  men  were  scattered,  some  besieging  Massena,  in 

Genoa,  some  attacking  Suchet  on  the  Var.     His  danger  was  imminent,  for 

Napoleon,  leaving  Massena  to  starve  in  Genoa,  had  formed  the  design  of 

annihilating  the  Austrian  army  at  one  tremendous  blow. 

The  people  of  Lombardy,  weary  of  the  Austrian  yoke,  and  hoping  for 
liberty  under  the  rule  of  France,  received  the  new-comers  with  transport, 
and  lent  them  what  aid  they  could.  On  June  9th,  Marshall  Lannes  met 


NAPOLEON    CROSSING   THE   ALPS 

The  renowned  exploit  of  Hannibal  leading  an  army  across  the  lofty  and  frozen  passes  ot  the  Alps,  was  emulated  by 

Napoleon  in  1800,  when  he  led  his  army  across  the  St.  Bernard  Pass,  descended  like  a  torrent  on  the 

Austrians  in  Italy,  and  defeated  them  in  the  great  battle  of  Marengo- 


NAPOLEON  BONAPARTE— THE  MAN  OP  DESTINY  49 

and  defeated  the  Austrians  at  Montebello,  after  a  hot  engagement.  "  I 
heard  the  bones  crackle  like  a  hailstorm  on  the  roofs,"  he  said.  On  the  I4th, 
the  two  armies  met  on  the  plain  of  Marengo,  and  one  of  the  most  famous 
of  Napoleon's  battles  began. 

Napoleon  was  not  ready  for  the   coming  battle,  and  was  taken  by  sur- 
prise.     He  had  been  obliged  to  break  up  his  army  in  order  to  guard  all  the 
passages  open  to  the  enemy.      When  he  entered,  on  the  i3th,  the  plain  be- 
tween  the   Scrivia  and  the   Bormida,  near  the  little  village   of   The  Famous 
Marengo,   he  was  ignorant  of  the   movements  of  the  Austri-      Field  of 
ans,  and  was  not  expecting  the   onset  of  Melas,  who,    on  the      Marengo 
following  morning,  crossed  the  Bormida  by  three  bridges,  and  made  a  fierce 
assault  upon  the  divisions  of  generals  Victor  and  Lannes.     Victor  was  vigor- 
ously attacked  and  driven  back,  and  Marengo  was   destroyed  by  the  Aus- 
trian cannon.     Lannes  was  surrounded  by  overwhelming  numbers,  and,  fight- 
ing furiously,  was   forced   to  retreat.     In  the  heat  of  the  battle    Bonaparte 
reached  the  field  with  his  guard  and  his  staff",  and  found  himself  in  the  thick 
of  the  terrific  affray  and  his  army  virtually  beaten. 

The  retreat  continued.  It  was  impossible  to  che<;k  it.  The  enemy 
pressed  enthusiastically  forward.  The  army  was  in  imminent  danger  of 
being  cut  in  two.  But  Napoleon,  with  obstinate  persistance,  kept  up  the 
fight,  hoping  for  some  change  in  the  perilous  situation.  Melas,  on  the  con- 
trary,— an  old  man,  weary  of  his  labors,  and  confident  in  the  seeming  vic- 
tory,— withdrew  to  his  headquarters  at  Alessandria,  whence  he  sent  off 
despatches  to  the  effect  that  the  terrible  Corsican  had  at  length  met  defeat. 

He  did  not  know  his  man.  Napoleon  sent  an  aide-de-camp  in  all  haste 
after  Desaix,  one  of  his  most  trusted  generals,  who  had  just  returned  from 
Egypt,  and  whose  corps  he  had  detached  towards  Novi.  All  depended  upon 
his  rapid  return.  Without  Desaix  the  battle  was  lost.  Fortunately  the 
alert  general  did  not  wait  for  the  messenger.  His  ears  caught  the  sound  of 
distant  cannon  and,  scenting  danger,  he  marched  back  with  the  utmost  speed. 

Napoleon  met  his  welcome  officer  with  eyes  of  joy  and  hope.  "  You 
see  the  situation,"  he  said,  rapidly  explaining  the  state  of  affairs.  "  What 
is  to  be  done  ?  " 

"  It  is  a  lost  battle,"  Desaix  replied.  "  But  there  are  some  A  Qreat  Battle 
hours  of  daylight  yet.  We  have  time  to  win  another."  Lost  and 

While  he  talked  with  the  commander,  his  regiments  had 
hastily  formed,   and    now  presented  a  threatening    front    to  the  Austrians. 
Their  presence  gave  new  spirit  to  the  retreating  troops. 

"  Soldiers  and  friends,"  cried  Napoleon  to  them,  "  remember  that  it  is 
my  custom  to  sleep  upon  the  field  of  battle." 


50  NAPOLEON  BONAPARTE— THE  MAN  OF  DESTINY 

Back  upon  their  foes  turned  the  retreating  troops,  with  new  animation, 
and  checked  the  victorious  Austrians.  Desaix  hurried  to  his  men  and  placed 
himself  at  their  head. 

"  Go  and  tell  the  First  Consul  that  I  am  about  to  charge,"  he  said  to 
an  aide.  "  I  need  to  be  supported  by  cavalry." 

A  few  minutes  afterwards,  as  he  was  leading  his   troops  irresistibly  for- 
ward, a  ball  struck  him   in  the  breast,  inflicting  a  mortal  wound.      "  I  have 
been   too  long  making  war  in  Africa ;  the  bullets  of  Europe  know  me  no 
Tiore,"  he  sadly  said.     "Conceal  my  death  from  the  men  ;  it  might  rob  them 
>f  spirit." 

The  soldiers  had  seen  him  fall,  but,  instead  of  being  dispirited,  they 
were  filled  with  fury,  and  rushed  forward  furiously  to  avenge  their  beloved 
leader.  At  the  same  time  Kellermann  arrived  with  his  dragoons,  impetuously 
hurled  them  upon  the  Austrian  cavalry,  broke  through  their  columns,  and 
fell  upon  the  grenadiers  who  were  wavering  before  the  troops  of  Desaix. 
It  was  a  death-stroke.  The  cavalry  and  infantry  together  swept  them  back 
in  a  disorderly  retreat.  One  whole  corps,  hopeless  of  escape,  threw  down 
its  arms  and  surrendered.  The  late  victorious  army  was  everywhere  in 
retreat.  The  Austrians  were  crowded  back  upon  the  Bormida,  here  block- 
ing the  bridges,  there  flinging  themselves  into  the  stream,  on  all  sides  flying 
from  the  victorious  French.  The  cannon  stuck  in  the  muddy  stream  and 
were  left  to  the  victors.  When  Melas,  apprised  of  the  sudden  change  in  the 
aspect  of  affairs,  hurried  back  in  dismay  to  the  field,  the  battle  was  irretriev- 
ably lost,  and  General  Zach,  his  representative  in  command,  was  a  prisoner 
in  the  hands  of  the  French.  The  field  was  strewn  with  thousands  of  the 
dead.  The  slain  Desaix  and  the  living  Kellermann  had  turned  the  Austrian 
victory  into  defeat  and  saved  Napoleon. 

The  Result  of  A  few  days   afterwards,  on  the  iQth,  Moreau  in  Germany 

the  Victory  won  a  brilliant  victory  at  Hochstadt,  near  Blenheim,  took  5,000 
engo  prisoners  and  twenty  pieces  of  cannon,  and  forced  from  the 
Austrians  an  armed  truce  which  left  him  master  of  South  Germany.  A  still 
more  momentous  armistice  was  signed  by  Melas  in  Italy,  by  which  the  Aus- 
trians surrendered  Piedmont,  Lombardy,  and  all  their  territory  as  far  as  the 
Mincio,  leaving  France  master  of  Italy.  Melas  protested  against  these 
severe  terms,  but  Napoleon  was  immovable. 

"  I  did  not  begin  to  make  war  yesterday,"  he  said.  "  I  know  your  situa- 
tion. You  are  out  of  provisions,  encumbered  with  the  dead,  wounded,  and 
sick,  and  surrounded  on  all  sides.  I  could  exact  everything.  I  ask  o.ily 
what  the  situation  of  affairs  demands  I  have  no  other  terms  to  offer." 


NAPOLEON  BONAPARTE—  THE  MAN  OF  DESTINY  51 

During  the  night  of  the  2d  and  3d  of  July,  Napoleon  re-entered  Paris, 
which  he  had  left  less  than  two  months  before.     Brilliant  ova-   Napoieon 
tions  met  him  on  his  route,  and  all  France  would  have  pros-      Returns  to 
trated  itself  at  his  feet  had  he  permitted.     He  came  crowned      France 
with  the  kind  of  glory  which  is  especially  dear  to  the  French,  that  gained  on 
field  of  battle. 

Five  months  afterwards,  Austria  having  refused  to  make  peace  without 
the  concurrence  of  England,  and  the  truce  being  at  an  end,  another  famous 
victory  was  added  to  the  list  of  those  which  were  being  inscribed  upon  the 
annals  of  France.  On  the  3d  of  December  the  veterans  under  Moreau  met 
an  Austrian  army  under  the  Archduke  John,  on  the  plain  of  Hohenlinden, 
across  which  ran  the  small  river  Iser. 

The  Austrians  marched    through    the  forest  of    Hohen-    . 

Moreau  and  the 

linden,  looking  for  no  resistance,  and  unaware  that   Moreau's      Great  Baf 


army  awaited  their  exit.     As  they  left  the  shelter  of  the  trees      of 

and  debouched  upon  the   plain,  they  were  attacked   by   the 

French  in   force.     Two  divisions  had  been   despatched   to  take  them  in  the 

rear,  and   Moreau  held  back  his  men   to  give  them   the    necessary  time. 

The  snow  was  falling  in  great  flakes,    yet    through   it  his  keen  eyes  saw 

some  signs  of  confusion  in  the  hostile  ranks. 

"  Richepanse  has  struck  them  in  the  rear,"  he  said.  "  the  time  has  come 
to  charge." 

Ney  rushed  forward  at  the  head  of  his  troops,  driving  the  enemy  in 
confusion  before  him.  The  centre  of  the  Austrian  army  was  hemmed  in 
between  the  two  forces,  Decaen  had  struck  their  left  wing  in  the  rear  and 
forced  it  back  upon  the  Inn.  Their  right  was  driven  into  the  valley.  The 
day  was  lost  to  the  Austrians,  whose  killed  and  wounded  numbered  8,000, 
while  the  French  had  taken  12,000  prisoners  and  eighty-seven  pieces 
of  cannon. 

The  victorious  French  advanced,  sweeping  back  all  opposition,  until 
Vienna,  the  Austrian  capital,  lay  before  them,  only  a  few  leagues  away. 
His  staff  officers  urged  Moreau  to  take  possession  of  the  city. 

"  That  would  be  a  fine  thing  to  do,  no  doubt,"  he  said  ;  "  but  to  my 
fancy  to  dictate  terms  of  peace  will  be  a  finer  thing  still." 

The  Austrians  were  ready  for  peace  at  any  price.     On  Christmas  day, 
1800,  an  armistice  was  signed  which  delivered  to  the  French 
the  valley  of  the  Danube,  the  country  of  the  Tyrol,  a  number      Luneviiie 
of  fortresses,  and  immense  magazines  of  war  materials.     The 
war  continued  in  Italy  till  the  end  of  December,  when  a  truce  was  signed 
there  and  the  conflict  was  at  an  end. 


52  NAPOLEON  BONAPARTE— THE  MAN  OF  DESTINY 

Thus  the  nineteenth  century  dawned  with  France  at  truce  with  all  her 
foes  except  Great  Britain.  In  February,  1801,  a  treaty  of  peace  between 
Austria  and  France  was  signed  at  Luneville,  in  which  the  valley  of  the 
Etsch  and  the  Rhine  was  acknowledged  as  the  boundary  of  France.  Austria 
was  forced  to  relinquish  all  her  possessions  in  Italy,  except  the  city  of 
Venice  and  a  portion  of  Venetia  ;  all  the  remainder  of  North  Italy  falling 
into  the  hands  of  France.  Europe  was  at  peace  with  the  exception  of  the 
hostile  relations  still  existing  between  England  and  France. 

The  war  between  these  two  countries  was  mainly  confined  to   Egypt, 

where  remained  the  army  which  Napoleon  had  left  in  his  hasty  return  to 

France.     As  it  became  evident  in  time  that  neither  the  British   land  forces 

nor  the  Turkish  troops  could  overcome  the  French  veterans  in   the   valley 

of  the  Nile,   a  treaty  was  arranged  which   stipulated  that  the 

Amiens  French  soldiers,  24,000  in  all,  should  be  taken  home  in  English 

ships,  with  their  arms  and  ammunition,  Egypt  being   given 

back  to  the  rule  of  the  Sultan.     This  was  followed  by  the  peace  of  Amiens 

(March  27,  1802),  between  England  and  France,  and  the  long  war  was,  for 

the  time,  at  an  end.     Napoleo  i  had  conquered  peace. 

During  the  period  of  peaceful  relations  that  followed  Napoleon  was  by 
no  means  at  rest.  His  mind  was  too  active  to  yield  him  long  intervals  of 
leisure.  There  was  much  to  be  done  in  France  in  sweeping  away  the  traces 
of  the  revolutionary  insanity.  One  of  the  first  cares  of  the  Consul  was  to 
restore  the  Christian  worship  in  the  French  churches  and  to  abolish  the 
Republican  festivals.  But  he  had  no  intention  of  giving  the  church  back 
its  old  power  and  placing  another  kingship  beside  his  own.  He  insisted 
that  the  French  church  should  lose  its  former  supremacy  and  sink  to  the 
position  of  a  servant  of  the  Pope  and  of  the  temporal  sovereign  of  France. 

Establishing  his  court  as  First  Consul  in  the  Tuileries,  Napoleon 
began  to  bring  back  the  old  court  fashions  and  etiquette,  and  attempted  to 
restore  the  monarchical  customs  and  usages.  The  elegance  of  royalty 
reappeared,  and  it  seemed  almost  as  if  monarchy  had  been  restored. 

A  further  step  towards  the  restoration  of  the  kingship  was  soon  taken. 
Napoleon,  as  yet  Consul  only  for  ten  years,  had  himself  appointed  Consul 
for  life,  with  the  power  of  naming  his  successor.  He  was  king  now  in 
everything  but  the  name.  But  he  was  not  suffered  to  wear  his  new  honor 
in  safety.  His  ambition  had  aroused  the  anger  of  the  republicans,  conspi- 
racies rose  around  him,  and  more  than  once  his  life  was  in  danger.  On  his 
way  to  the  opera  house  an  infernal  machine  was  exploded,  killing  several 
^ersons  but  leaving  him  unhurt. 


NAPOLEON    BONAPARTE 


NAPOLEON  BONAPARTE—THE  MAN  OF  DESTINY  55 

Other    plots    were    organized,    and    Fouche*,    the    police-agent   of  the 
time,   was   kept  busy  in  seeking  the  plotters,  for  whom  there   The  punish. 
was  brief  mercy  when   found.     Even    Moreau,  the  victor  at      mentof  the 
Hohenlinden,   accused  of   negotiating  with  the  conspirators,      an^the^As^ 
was  disgraced,  and  exiled  himself  from  France.    Napoleon  dealt      sassination 
with  his  secret  enemies  with  the  same  ruthless  energy  as  he      °*  the  Puke 
did  with  his  foes  in  the  field  of  battle. 

His  rage  at  the  attempts  upon  his  life,  indeed,  took  a  form  that  has 
been  universally  condemned.  The  Duke  d'Enghien,  a  royalist  French 
nobleman,  grandson  of  the  Prince  of  Conde,  who  was  believed  by  Napoleon 
to  be  the  soul  of  the  royalist  conspiracies,  ventured  too  near  the  borders  of 
France,  and  was  seized  in  foreign  territory,  taken  in  haste  to  Paris,  and 
shot  without  form  of  law  or  a  moment's  opportunity  for  defence.  The 
outrage  excited  the  deepest  indignation  throughout  Europe.  No  name  was 
given  it  but  murder,  and  the  historians  of  to-day  speak  of  the  act  by  no 
other  title. 

The  opinion  of  the  world  had  little  effect  upon  Napoleon.  He  was  a 
law  unto  himself.  The  death  of  one  man  or  of  a  thousand  men  weighed 
nothing  to  him  where  his  safety  or  his  ambition  was  concerned.  Men  were 
the  pawns  he  used  in  the  great  game  of  empire,  and  he  heeded  not  how 
many  of  them  were  sacrificed  so  that  he  won  the  game. 

The  culmination  of  his  ambition  came  in  1804,  when  the  hope  he  had. 
long  secretly  cherished,  that  of  gaining  the  imperial  dignity  was  realized. 
He  imitated  the  example  of  Caesar,  the  Roman  conqueror,  in    N&  ojeon 
seeking  the  crown  as  a  reward  for  his  victories,  and  was  elected      Crowned 

emperor  of  the  French  by  an  almost  unanimous  vote.     That      Emperor  of 
i  •  r     i          11         -11  i       •        i    e          i  the  French 

the   sanction  01   the  church  might  be   obtained  for  the   new 

dignity,  the  Pope  was  constrained  to  come  to  Paris,  and  there  anointed  him 
emperor  on  December  2,  1804. 

The  new  emperor  hastened  to  restore  the  old  insignia  of  royalty.  He 
surrounded  nimself  with  a  brilliant  court,  brought  back  the  discarded  titles  of 
nobility,  named  the  members  of  his  family  princes  and  princesses,  and 
sought  to  banish  every  vestige  of  republican  simplicity.  Ten  years  before 
he  had  begun  his  career  in  the  streets  of  Paris  by  sweeping  away  with  can- 
non-shot the  mob  that  rose  in  support  of  the  Reign  of  Terror.  Now  he 
had  swept  away  the  Republic  of  France  and  founded  a  French  empire,  with 
Viimself  at  its  head  as  Napoleon  I. 

But  though  royalty  was  restored,  it  was  not  a  royalty  of  the  old  type. 
Feudalism  was  at  an  end.  The  revolution  had  destroyed  the  last  relics  of 
that  effete  and  abominable  system,  and  it  was  an  empire  on  new  and 
4 


56  NAPOLEON  BONAPARTE— THE  MAN  OF  DESTINY 

modern  lines  which  Napoleon  had  founded,  a  royalty  voted  into  existence 
by  a  free  people,  not  resting  upon  a  nation  of  slaves. 

The  new  emperor  did  not  seek  to  enjoy  in  leisure  his  new  dignity.    His 

restless  mind  impelled  him  to  broad  schemes  of  public  improvement.      He 

sought    glory    in    peace    as    actively    as    in    war.      Important 

Works  Divised  changes  were  made  in  the  management  of  the  finances  in  order 

By  the  New      to   provide   the  great  sums   needed  for   the  government,  the 

army,  and  the  state.      Vast  contracts  were  made  for  road  and 

canal  building,  and  ambitious  architectural  labors  were  set  in  train.    Churches 

were  erected,   the   Pantheon  was  completed,    triumphal  arches  were  built, 

two  new  bridges  were  thrown  over  the  Seine,  the  Louvre  was  ordered  to  be 

finished,  the  Bourse  to  be  constructed,  and  a  temple  consecrated  to  the  exploits 

of  the  army  (now  the  church  of  the  Madeleine)  to  be  built.      Thousands  of 

workmen  were    kept    busy  in   erecting  these   monuments   to  his  glory,  and 

all  France  resounded  with  his  fame. 

Among  the  most  important  of  tr  ese  evidences  of  his  activity  of  intellect 
was  the  formation  of  the  Code  Napoleon,  the  first  organized  code  of  French 
law,  and  still  the  basis  of  jurisprudence  in  France.  First  promulgated  in 
1801,  as  the  Civil  Code  of  France,  its  title  was  changed  to  the  Code  Napoleon 
in  1804,  and  as  such  it  stands  as  one  of  the  greatest  monuments  raised  by 
Napoleon  to  his  glory.  Thus  the  Consul,  and  subsequently  the  Emperor, 
usefully  occupied  himself  in  the  brief  intervals  between  his  almost  incessant 
wars. 


CHAPTER  III. 

Europe  in  the  Grasp  of  the  Iron  Hand. 

'  I  ^HE  peace  of  Amiens,  which  for  an  interval  left  France  without  an 
open  enemy  in  Europe,  did  not  long  continue.  England  failed  to 
carry  out  one  of  the  main  provisions  of  this  treaty,  holding  on  to  the 
island,  of  Malta  in  despite  of  the  French  protests.  The  feeling  between 
the  two  nations  soon  grew  bitter,  and  in  1803  England  again  declared  war 
against  France.  William  Pitt,  the  unyielding  foe  of  Napoleon,  came  again 
to  the  head  of  the  ministry  in  1804,  and  displayed  all  his  old 
activity  in  organizing  coalitions  against  the  hated  Corsican.  En2'and 
The  war  thus  declared  was  to  last,  so  far  as  England  was  con- 
cerned, until  Napoleon  was  driven  from  his  throne.  It  was  conducted  by 
the  English  mainly  through  the  aid  of  money  paid  to  their  European  allies, 
and  the  activity  of  their  fleet.  The  British  Channel  remained  an  insuper 
able  obstacle  to  Napoleon  in  his  conflict  with  his  island  foe,  and  the  utmost 
he  could  do  in  the  way  of  revenge  was  to  launch  his  armies  against  the 
allies  of  Great  Britain,  and  to  occupy  Hanover,  the  domain  of  the  English 
king  on  the  continent.  This  he  hastened  to  do. 

The  immunity  of  his  persistant  enemy  was  more  than  the  proud  con- 
queror felt  disposed  to  endure.  Hitherto  he  had  triumphed  over  all  his 
foes  in  the  field.  Should  these  haughty  islanders  contemn  his  power  and 
defy  his  armies  ?  He  determined  to  play  the  role  of  William  of  Normandy, 
centuries  before,  and  attack  them  on  their  own  shores.  This  design  he  had 
long  entertained,  and  began  actively  to  prepare  for  as  soon  as  war  was 
declared.  An  army  was  encamped  at  Boulogne,  and  a  great 
flotilla  prepared  to  convey  it  across  the  narrow  sea.  The  war  tionsforthe 

material  gathered  was  enormous  in  quantity ;  the  army  num-      invasion  of 

.  ,  ,  ,   J  ,       England 

bered   120,000  men,  with    10,000  horses;    1,800  gunboats  of 

various  kinds  were  ready;  only  the  support  of  the   fleet   was   awaited   to 
enable  the  crossing  to  be  achieved  in  safety. 

We  need  not  dwell  further  upon  this  great  enterprise,  since  it  failed  to 
yield  any  result.  The  French  admiral  whose  concurrence  was  depended  upon 
took  sick  and  died,  and  the  great  expedition  was  necessarily  postponed. 
Before  new  plans  could  be  laid  the  indefatigable  Pitt  had  succeeded  in 
organizing  a  fresh  coalition  in  Europe,  and  Napoleon  found  full  employ- 
ment for  his  army  on  the  continent. 

(57) 


58  EUROPE  Iff  TffE  GRASPS  OF  TffE  IRON  ft  AND 

In  April,  1805,  a  treaty  of  alliance  was  made  between  England  and 
Russia.  On  the  9th  of  August,  Austria  joined  this  alliance.  Sweden  sub- 
sequently gave  in  her  adhesion,  and  Prussia  alone  remained  neutral  among 
the  great  powers.  But  the  allies  were  mistaken  if  they  expected  to  take  the 
astute  Napoleon  unawares.  He  had  foreseen  this  combination,  and,  while 
keeping  the  eyes  of  all  Europe  fixed  upon  his  great  preparations  at  Boulogne, 
he  was  quietly  but  effectively  laying  his  plans  for  the  expected  campaign. 

The   Austrians  had  hastened  to  take  the  field,  marching  an  army  into 

Bavaria  and  forcing  the  Elector,  the  ally  of  Napoleon,  to  fly  from  his  capital. 

The  French  emperor  was  seemingly  taken  by  surprise,  and  apparently  was  in 

no  haste,  the  Austrians  having  made  much  progress  before  he  left  his  palace 

at  Saint  Cloud.      But  meanwhile  his  troops  were  quietly  but 

on'  Austria        rapidly   in   motion,   converging   from   all   points    towards  the 

Rhine,  and  by  the  end  of  September  seven  divisions  of  the 

army,    commanded   by  Napoleon's  ablest  Generals, — Ney,   Murat,    Lannes, 

Soult  and  others, — were  across  that  stream  and  marching  rapidly  upon  the 

enemy.     Bernadotte  led  his  troops  across  Prussian  territory  in  disdain  of  the 

neutrality  of  that  power,  and  thereby  gave  such  offence  to  King  Frederick 

William  as  to  turn  his  mind  decidedly  in  favor  of  joining  the  coalition. 

Early  in  October  the  French  held  both  banks  of  the  Danube,  and 
before  the  month's  end  they  had  gained  a  notable  triumph.  Mack,  one  of  the 
Austrian  commanders,  with  remarkable  lack  of  judgment,  held  his  army  in 
the  fortress  of  Ulm  while  the  swiftly  advancing  French  were  cutting  off 
every  avenue  of  retreat,  and  surrounding  his  troops.  An  extraordinary 
result  followed.  Ney,  on  the  Hth,  defeated  the  Austrians  at  Elchingen, 
cutting  off  Mack  from  the  main  army  and  shutting  him  up  hopelessly  in 
The  Surrender  Ulm.  Five  days  afterwards  the  desparing  and  incapable 
of  General  general  surrendered  his  army  as  prisoners  of  war.  Twenty- 
three  thousand  soldiers  laid  their  weapons  and  banners  at 
Napoleon's  feet  and  eighteen  generals  remained  as  prisoners  in  his  hands. 
It  was  a  triumph  which  in  its  way  atoned  for  a  great  naval  disaster  which 
took  place  on  the  succeeding  day,  when  Nelson,  the  English  admiral, 
attacked  and  destroyed  the  whole  French  fleet  at  Trafalgar. 

The  succeeding  events,  to  the  great  battle  that  closed  the  campaign, 
may  be  epitomized.  An  Austrian  army  had  been  dispatched  to  Italy  under 
the  brave  and  able  Archduke  Charles.  Here  Marshal  Massena  commanded 
the  French  and  a  battle  took  place  near  Caldiero  on  October  3<Dth.  The 
Austrians  fought  stubbornly,  but  could  not  withstand  the  impetuosity  of  the 
French,  and  were  forced  to  retreat  and  abandon  northern  Italy  to  Massena 
and  his  men. 


-5  5' 

-H: 


HI 


fs. 


EUROPE  IN  THE  GRASP  OF  THE  IRON  HAND  61 

In  the  north  the  king  of  Prussia,  furious  at  the  violation  of  his  neutral 
territory  by  the  French  under  Bernadotte,  gave  free  passage  to  the  Russian 
and  Swedish  troops,  and  formed  a  league  of  friendship  with  the  Czar 
Alexander.  He  then  dispatched  his  minister  Haugwitz  to  Napoleon,  with 
a  demand  that  concealed  a  threat,  requiring  him,  as  a  basis  of  peace,  to 
restore  the  former  treaties  in  Germany,  Switzerland,  Italy  and  Holland. 

With  utter  disregard  of  this  demand  Napoleon  advanced  along  the 
Danube  towards  the  Austrian  states,  meeting  and  defeating  the  Austrians 
and  Russians  in  a  series  of  sanguinary  conflicts.  The  Russian  army  was  the 
most  ably  commanded,  and  its  leader  Kutusoff  led  it  backward  in  slow  but 
resolute  retreat,  fighting  only  when  attacked.  The  French  under  Mortier 
were  caught  isolated  on  the  left  bank  of  the  Danube,  and  fiercely  assailed  by 
the  Russians,  losing  heavily  before  they  could  be  reinforced. 

Despite  all  resistance,  the  French  continued  to  advance, 
,,  ,  .  ,  ,7.  i          A  •          The  Advance 

Murat   soon   reaching  and    occupying   Vienna,   the    Austrian      On  Vienna 

capital,  from  which  the  emperor  had  hastily  withdrawn.  Still 
the  retreat  and  pursuit  continued,  the  allies  retiring  to  Moravia,  whither  the 
French,  laden  with  an  immense  booty  from  their  victories,  rapidly 
followed.  Futile  negotiations  for  peace  succeeded,  and  on  the  ist  of 
December,  the  two  armies,  both  concentrated  in  their  fullest  strength 
(92,000  of  the  allies  to  70,000  French)  came  face  to  face  on  the  field  of 
Austerlitz,  where  on  the  following  day  was  to  be  fought  one  of  the  memor- 
able battles  in  the  history  of  the  world. 

The  Emperor  Alexander  had  joined  Francis  of  Austria,  and  the  two 
monarchs,  with  their  staff  officers,  occupied  the  castle  and  village  of  Auster- 
litz.  Their  troops  hastened  to  occupy  the  plateau  of  Pratzen, 
which  Napoleon  had  designedly  left  free.  His  plans  of  battle 
was  already  fully  made.  He  had,  with  the  intuition  of 
genius,  foreseen  the  probable  manceuvers  of  the  enemy,  and  had  left  open  for 
them  the  position  which  he  wished  them  to  occupy.  He  even  announced 
their  movement  in  a  proclamation  to  his  troops. 

"  The  positions  that  we  occupy  are  formidable,"  he  said,  "  and  while 
the  enemy  march  to  turn  my  right  they  will  present  to  me  their  flank." 

This  movement  to  the  right  was  indeed  the  one  that  had  been  decided 
upon  by  the  allies,  with  the  purpose  of  cutting  off  the  road  to  Vienna  by 
isolating  numerous  corps  dispersed  in  Austria  and  Styria.  It  had  been 
shrewdly  divined  by  Napoleon  in  choosing  his  ground. 

The  fact  that  the  2d  of  December  was  the  anniversary  of  the  corona- 
tion of  their  emperor  filled  the  French  troops  with  ardor.  They  celebrated 
it  by  making  great  torches  of  the  straw  which  formed  their  beds  and  illumi- 


62  EUROPE  IN  THE  GRASP  OF  THE  IRON  HAND 

nating  their  camp.  Early  ihe  next  morning  the  allies  began  their  projected 
movement.  To  the  joy  of  Napoleon  his  prediction  was  fulfilled,  they  were 
advancing  towards  his  right.  He  felt  sure  that  the  victory  was  in  his  hands. 

He  held  his  own  men  in  readiness  while  the  line  of  the  enemy  deployed. 
The  sun  was  rising,  its  rays  gleaming  through  a  mist,  which  dispersed  as  it 
The  Greatest  of   rose   higner-     It  now  poured  its  brilliant   beams  across   the 
Napoleon's       field,  the  afterward  famous  "sun  of  Austerlitz."     The  move- 
Victories          ment  of  the  allies  had  the  effect  of  partly  withdrawing   their 
troops   from   the   plateau    of  Pratzen.     At  a  signal  from   the   emperor  the 
strongly  concentrated  centre  of  the  French  army  moved  forward  in  a  dense 
mass,  directing  their  march  towards  the  plateau,  which  they  made  all  haste 
to  occupy.     They  had  reached  the  foot  of  the  hill  before  the  rising  mist 
revealed  them  to  the  enemy. 

The  two  emperors  watched  the  movement  without  divining  its  intent. 
"  See  how  the  French  climb  the  height  without  staying  to  reply  to  our  fire/' 
said  Prince  Czartoryski,  who  stood  near  them. 

The  emperors  were  soon  to  learn  why  their  fire  was  disdained.  Theii 
\narching  columns,  thrown  out  one  after  another  on  the  slope,  found  them- 
selves suddenly  checked  in  their  movement,  and  cut  off  from  the  two  wings 
of  the  army.  The  allied  force  had  been  pierced  in  its  centre,  which  was 
flung  back  in  disorder,  in  spite  of  the  efforts  of  Kutusoff  to  send  it  aid.  At 
the  same  time  Davout  faced  the  Russians  on  the  right,  and  Murat  and 
Lannes  attacked  the  Russian  and  Austrian  squadrons  on  the  left,  while  Kel- 
lermann's  light  cavalry  dispersed  the  squadrons  of  the  Uhlans. 

The  Russian  guard,  checked  in  its  movement,  turned  towards  Pratzen, 
in  a  desperate  effort  to  retrieve  the  fortune  of  the  day.  It  was  incautiously 
pursued  by  a  French  battalion,  which  soon  found  itself  isolated  and  in 
danger.  Napoleon  perceived  its  peril  and  hastily  sent  Rapp  to  its  sup- 
port, with  the  Mamelukes  and  the  chasseurs  of  the  guard.  They  rushed 
forward  with  energy  and  quickly  drove  back  the  enemy,  Prince  Repnin 
remaining  a  prisoner  in  their  hands. 

The  day  was  lost  to  the  allies.  Everywhere  disorder  prevailed  and 
their  troops  were  in  retreat.  An  isolated  Russian  division  threw  down  its 
arms  and  surrendered.  Two  columns  were  forced  back  beyond  the  marshes. 
The  soldiers  rushed  in  their  flight  upon  the  ice  of  the  lake,  which  tht; 
intense  cold  had  made  thick  enough  to  bear  their  weight. 

And  now  a  terrible   scene  was  witnessed.     War  is  merci- 

Lake  Horror     ^ess  I  death  is   its  aim;  the   slaughter  of    an   enemy   by  any 

means  is  looked  upon  as  admissible.    By  Napoleon's  order  the 

French  cannon  were  turned  upon  the  lake.     Their  plunging  balls  rent  and 


EUROPE  IN  THE  GRASP  OF  THE  IRON  HAND  63 

splintered  the  ice  under  the  feet  of  the  crowd  of  fugitives.  Soon  it  broke 
with  a  crash,  and  the  unhappy  soldiers,  with  shrill  cries  of  despair,  sunk  to 
death  in  the  chilling  waters  beneath,  thousands  of  them  perishing.  It  was  a 
frightful  expedient — one  that  would  be  deemed  a  crime  in  any  other  code 
than  the  merciless  one  of  war. 

A  portion  of  the  allied  army  made  a  perilous  retreat  along  a  narrow 
embankment  which  separated  the  two  lakes  of  Melnitz  and  Falnitz,  their 
exposed  causeway  swept  by  the  fire  of  the  French  batteries.  Of  the  whole 
army,  the  corps  of  Prince  Bagration  alone  withdrew  in  order  of  battle. 

All  that  dreadful  day  the  roar  of  battle  had  resounded.  At  its  close 
the  victorious  French  occupied  the  field  ;  the  allied  army  was  pouring  back 
in  disordered  flight,  the  dismayed  emperors  in  its  midst ;  thousands  of  dead 
covered  the  fatal  field,  the  groans  of  thousands  of  wounded  men  filled  the 
air.  More  than  30,000  prisoners,  including-  twenty  generals,  remained 
in  Napoleon's  hands,  and  with  them  a  hundred  and  twenty  pieces  of. 
cannon  and  forty  flags,  including  the  standards  of  the  Imperial  Guard  of 
Russia. 

The  defeat  was  a  crushing  one.  Napoleon  had  won  the  most  famous 
of  his  battles.  The  Emperor  Francis,  in  deep  depression,  Treaty  Of 
asked  for  an  interview  and  an  armistice.  Two  days  afterward  Peace  with 
the  emperors, — the  conqueror  and  the  conquered, — met  and  Austna 
an  armistice  was  granted.  While  the  negotiations  for  peace  continued 
Napoleon  shrewdly  disposed  of  the  hostility  of  Prussia  by  offering  the  state 
of  Hanover  to  that  power  and  signing  a  treaty  with  the  king.  On  Decem- 
ber 26th  a  treaty  of  peace  between  France  and  Austria  was  signed  at 
Presburg.  The  Emperor  Francis  yielded  all  his  remaining  possessions  in 
Italy,  and  also  the  Tyrol,  the  Black  Forest,  and  other  districts  in  Germany, 
which  Napoleon  presented  to  his  allies,  Bavaria,  Wurtemberg,  and  Baden  ; 
whose  monarchs  were  still  more  .closely  united  to  Napoleon  by  marriages 
between  their  children  and  relatives  of  himself  and  his  wife  Josephine. 
Bavaria  and  Wurtemberg  were  made  kingdoms,  and  Baden  was  raised 
in  rank  to  a  grand-duchy;  The  three  months'  war  was  at  an  end.  Austria 
had  paid  dearly  for  her  subserviency  to  England.  Of  the  several  late 
enemies  of  France,  only  two  remained  in  arms,  Russia  and  England. 
And  in  the  latter  Pitt,  Napoleon's  greatest  enemy,  died  during  the  next 
month,  leaving  the  power  in  the  hands  of  Fox,  an  admirer  of  the  Corsican. 
Napoleon  was  at  the  summit  of  his  glory  and  success. 

Napoleon's  political  changes  did  not  end  with  the  partial  dismember- 
ment of  Austria.  His  ambition  to  become  supreme  in  Europe  and  to  rule 
everywhere  lord  paramount,  inspired  him  to  exalt  his  family,  raising  his  rela- 


6d  EUROPE  IN  THE  GRASP  OF  THE  IRON  HAND 

lives  to  the  rank  of  kings,  but  keeping   them  the  servants  of  his  imperious 

will.     Holland  lost  its  independence,  Louis  Bonaparte  being  named  its  king. 

Joachim   Murat,   brother-in-law  of  the  emperor,  was  given  a 

NT^'ards  King,  kingdom  on  the  lower  Rhine,  with   Dusseldorf  as   its  capital. 

domstoMis      A  stroke  of  Napoleon's  pen  ended  the  Bourbon   monarchy  in 

Brothers  and     Napies>  ancj  Joseph  Bonaparte  was  sent  thither  as  king,  with 

a  French  army  to   support  him.     Italy  was  divided  into  duke 

doms,  ruled  over  by  the  marshals  and  adherents  of  the  emperor,  whose  hand 

began  to  move  the  powers  of  Europe  as  a  chess-player  moves  the   pieces 

upon  his  board. 

The  story  of  his  political  transformations  extends  farther  still.  By  rais- 
ing the  electors  of  Bavaria  and  Wurtemberg  to  the  rank  of  kings,  he  had 
practically  brought  to  an  end  the  antique  German  Empire — which  indeed 
had  long  been  little  more  than  a  name.  In  July,  1806,  he  completed  this 
work.  The  states  of  South  and  West  Germany  were  organized  into  a  league 
named  the  Confederation  of  the  Rhine,  under  the  protection  of  Napoleon. 
Many  small  principalities  were  suppressed  and  their  territories  added  to  the 
larger  ones,  increasing  the  power  of  the  latter,  and  winning  the  gratitude  of 
their  rulers  for  their  benefactor.  The  empire  of  France  was  in  this  manner 
practically  extended  over  I.taly,  the  Netherlands,  and  the  west  and  south  of 
Germany.  Francis  II.,  lord  of  the  "  Holy  Roman  Empire,"  now  renounced 
the  title  which  these  radical  changes  had  made  a  mockery,  withdrew  his 
states  from  the  imperial  confederation  of  Germany,  and  assumed  the  title 
of  Francis  I.  of  Austria.  The  Empire  of  Germany,  once  powerful,  but  long 
since  reduced  to  a  shadowy  pretence,  finally  ceased  to  exist. 

These  autocratic  changes  could  not  fail  to  arouse  the  indignation  of  the 
monarchs  of  Europe  and  imperil  the  prevailing  peace.  Austria  was  in  no 
The  Hostile  condition  to  resume  hostilities,  but  Prussia,  which  had  main- 
irritation  of  tained  a  doubtful  neutrality  during  the  recent  wars  grew  more 
and  more  exasperated  as  these  high-handed  proceedings  went 
on.  A  league  which  the  king  of  Prussia  sought  to  form  with  Saxony  and 
Hesse-Cassel  was  thwarted  by  Napoleon  ;  who  also,  in  negotiating  for  peace 
with  England,  offered  to  return  Hanover  to  that  country,  without  consulting 
the  Prussian  King,  to  whom  this  electorate  had  been  ceded.  Other  causes 
of  resentment  existed,  and  finally  Frederick  William  of  Prussia,  irritated 
beyond  control,  sent  a  so-called  "  ultimatum  "  to  Napoleon,  demanding  the 
evacuation  of  South  Germany  by  the  French.  As  might  have  been  expected, 
this  proposal  was  rejected  with  scorn,  whereupon  Prussia  broke  off  all 
communication  with  France  and  began  preparations  for  war. 


EUROPE  IN  THE  GRASP  OF  THE  IRON  HAND  65 

The  Prussians  did  not  know  the  man  with  whom  they  had  to  deal.     It 
was  an  idle  hope  that  this  state  could  cope  alone  with   the   power  of  Napo- 
leon and   his   allies,  and  while   Frederick  William  was   slowly   The  p™,^,, 
preparing  for  the  war  which  he  had  long  sought  to  avoid,  the      Armies  in 
French  troops  were  on  the  march  and  rapidly  approaching  the      the  Field 
borders  of  his  kingdom.     Saxony  had  allied  itself  with  Prussia  under  com- 
pulsion, and   had   added   20,000  men  to  its.  armies.     The  elector  of  Hesse- 
Casse!   had   also    joined  the  Prussians,  and  furnished   them  a  contingent   of 
troops.      But   this  hastily  levied  army,  composed  of  men  few  of  whom  had 
ever  seen  a  battle,  seemed  hopeless  as  matched  with  the  great  army  of  war- 
worn veterans  which  Napoleon  was  marching  with  his   accustomed  rapidity 
against  them.   Austria,  whom  the  Prussian  King  had  failed  to  aid,  now  looked 
on  passively  at  his  peril.     The  Russians,  who  still  maintained  hostile  relations 
with   France,   held   their  troops   immovable   upon  the  Vistula.      Frederick 
William  was  left  to  face  the  power  of  Napoleon  alone. 

The  fate  of  the  campaign  was  quickly  decided.    Through    March  of  the 
the  mountain  passes  of  Franconia   Napoleon    led    his  forces      French  Upon 
against  the  Prussian  army,  which  was  divided  into  two  corps, 
under  the  command  of  the  Duke  of  Brunswick  and  the  Prince  of  Hohen- 
lohe-     The   troops  of  the  latter  occupied  the  road   from  Weimar  to  Jena. 
The  heights  which  commanded   the  latter  town  were    seized   by  Marshal 
Lannes  on   his   arrival.     A  second   French  corps,    under  Marshals  Davout 
and  Bernadotte,   marched   against   the  Duke  of  Brunswick  and   established 
themselves  upon  the  left  bank  of  the  Saale. 

On  the  morning  of  the  4th  of  October,  1806,  the  conflict  at  Jena,  upon 
which  hung  the  destiny  of  the  Prussian  kingdom,  began.  The  troops  under 
the  Prince  of  Hohenlohe  surpassed  in  number  those  of  Napoleon,  but  were 
unfitted  to  sustain  the  impetuosity  of  the  French  assault.  Soult  and 
Augereau,  in  command  of  the  wings  of  the  French  army,  advanced  rapidly, 
enveloping  the  Prussian  forces  and  driving  them  back  by  the  vigor  of  their 
attack.  Then  on  the  Prussian  center  the  guard  and  the  reserves  fell  in  a 
compact  mass  whose  tremendous  impact  the  enemy  found  it  impossible  to 
endure.  The  retreat  became  a  rout.  The  Prussian  army  broke  into  a  mob 
of  fugitives,  flying  in  terror  before  Napoleon's  irresistible  veterans. 

They  were  met.by  Marshal  Biechel  with  an  army  of  20,000  men,  advanc- 
ing   in    all   haste    to    the  aid    of   the   Prince   of   Hohenlohe.    Defeatoftne 
Throwing  his  men  across  the  line  of  flight,  he  did  his  utmost      Prussians  at 

to  rally  the  fugitives.     His  effort  was  a  vain  one.     His  men      Jena  and 

'  .  ,  11111         Auerstadt 

were  swept  away  by  the  panic-stricken  mass  and  pushed  back 

bj  the  triumphant  pursuers.     Weimar  was  reached  by  the  French  and  the 


66  EUROPE  IN  THE  GRASP  OF  THE  IRON  HAND 

Germans  simultaneosly,  the   former  seizing   prisoners   in  such    numbers  as 
seriously  to  hinder  their  pursuit. 

While  this  battle  was  going  on,  another  was  in  progress  near  Auer- 
stadt,  where  Marshal  Davout  had  encountered  the  forces  of  the  Duke  of 
Brunswick,  with  whom  was  Frederick  William,  the  king.  Bernadotte, 
ordered  by  the  emperor  to  occupy  Hamburg,  had  withdrawn  his  troops, 
leaving  Davout  much  outnumbered  by  the  foe.  But  heedless  of  this,  he 
threw  himself  across  their  road  in  the  defile  of  Kcesen,  and  sustained  alone 
the  furious  attack  made  upon  him  by  the  duke.  Throwing  his  regiments 
into  squares,  he  poured  a  murderous  fire  on  the  charging  troops,  hurling 
them  back  from  his  immovable  lines.  The  old  duke  fell  with  a  mortal 
wound.  The  king  and  his  son  led  their  troops  to  a  second,  but  equally 
fruitless,  attack.  Davout,  taking  advantage  of  their  repulse,  advanced  and 
seized  the  heights  of  Eckartsberga,  where  he  defended  himself  with  his 
artillery.  Frederick  William,  discouraged  by  this  vigorous  resistance, 
retired  towards  Weimar  with  the  purpose  of  joining  his  forces  with  those 
of  the  Prince  of  Hohenlohe  and  renewing  the  attack. 

Davout's    men    were   too   exhausted    to    pursue,    but    Bernadotte    was 
encountered  and  barred  the  way,  and  the  disaster  at  Jena  was  soon  made 
evident  by  the  panic-stricken   mass   of   fugitives,   whose    flying    multitude, 
hotly  pursued  by  the  French,  sought  safety  in  the  ranks  of  the  king's  corps, 
which  they  threw  into  confusion  by  their  impact      It  was  apparent  that  the 
battle  was  irretrievably  lost      Night  was  approaching.     The  king  marched 
hastily  away,  the  disorder  in  his  ranks  increasing  as  the  darkness  fell.      In 
that  one  fatal  day  he  had  lost  his  army  and  placed  his  kingdom  itself  in 
jeopardy.     "They  can  do  nothing  but  gather  up  the  debris"  said  Napoleon. 
The  French  lost  no  time  in  following  up  the  defeated  army,  which  had 
The  Demoriliza-  Broken   mto   several   divisions   in   its    retreat.     On   the    i/th, 
tionofthe        Duke   Eugene   of  Wurtemberg   and   the   reserves    under  his 
Forces*"  command  were  scattered  in  defeat.     On  the  28th,  the  Prince 

of  Hohenlohe,  with  the  12,000  men  whom  he  still  held  to- 
gether, was  forced  to  surrender.  Blucher,  who  had  seized  the  free  city  of 
Lubeck,  was  obliged  to  follow  his  example.  On  all  sides  the  scattered  debris 
of  the  army  was  destroyed,  and  on  October  2;th  Napoleon  entered  in 
triumph  the  city  of  Berlin,  his  first  entry  into  an  enemy's  capital. 
Napoleon  ^he  battle  ended,  the  country  occupied,  the  work  of 

Divides  the      revenge  of  the  victor  began.     The  Elector  of  Hesse  was  driven 
victory*  fr°m  his  throne  and  nis  country  stricken  from  the  list  of  the 

powers  of  Europe.      Hanover  and  the  Hanseatic  towns  were 
occupied   by  the  French.     The  English  merchandise    found   in  ports  and 


EUROPE  IN  THE  GRASP  OF  THE  IRON  HAND  67 

warehouses  was  seized  and  confiscated.  A  heavy  war  contribution  was  laid 
upon  the  defeated  state.  Severe  taxes  were  laid  upon  Hamburg,  Bremen 
and  Leipzig-,  and  from  all  the  leading  cities  the  treasures  of  art  and  science 
were  carried  away  to  enrich  the  museums  and  galleries  of  France. 

Saxony,  whose  alliance  with  Prussia  had  been  a  forced  one,  was  alone 
spared.  The  Saxon  prisoners  were  sent  back  free  to  their  sovereign,  and 
the  elector  was  granted  a  favorable  peace  and  honored  with  the  title  of 
king.  In  return  for  these  favors  he  joined  the  Confederation  of  the  Rhine, 
and  such  was  his  gratitude  to  Napoleon  that  he  remained  his  friend  and  ally 
in  the  trying  days  when  he  had  no  other  friend  among  the  powers  of  Europe. 

The  harsh  measures  of  which  we  have  spoken  were  not  the  only  ones 
taken  by  Napoleon  against  his  enemies.  England,  the  most  implacable  of 
his  foes,  remained  beyond  his  reach,  mistress  of  the  seas  as  he  was  lord  of 
the  land.  He  could  only  meet  the  islanders  upon  their  favorite  element, 
and  in  November  21,  1806,  he  sent  from  Berlin  to  Talleyrand,  his  Minister 
of  Foreign  Affairs,  a  decree  establishing  a  continental  embargo  against 
Great  Britain. 

''  The  British  Islanders,"  said  this  famous  edict  of  reprisal,  "are  declared 
in  a  state  of  blockade.     All  commerce  and  all  correspondence  with  them  are 
forbidden."     All  letters  or  packets  addressed  to  an  Englishman  or  written  in 
English  were   to   be  seized  ;  every   English   subject   found  in    The  Embargo 
any  country  controlled  by  France   was  to   be  made  a  prisoner      on  British 
of  war  ;  all  commerce  in   English  merchandise  was  forbidden,       Con 
'and  all   ships   coming  from   England  or  her  colonies   were   to  be   refused 
admittance  to  any  port. 

It  is  hardly  necessary  to  speak  here  of  the  distress  caused,  alike  in 
Earope  and  elsewhere,  by  this  war  upon  commerce,  in  which  England  did 
not  fail  to  meet  the  harsh  decrees  of  her  opponent  by  others  equally  severe. 
The  effect  of  these  edicts  upon  American  commerce  is  well  known.  The 
commerce  of  neutral  nations  was  almost  swept  from  the  seas.  One  result 
was  the  American  war  of  1812,  which  for  a  time  seemed  as  likely  to  be 
directed  against  France  as  Great  Britain. 

Meanwhile   Frederick  William  of  Prussia  was  a  fugitive 
i  •  r         i  111  t     i  •  Frederick 

king.      He  refused  to  accept  the   harsh  terms  ot   the  armistice      William  a 

offered  by  Napoleon,  and  in  despair  resolved  to  seek,  with  the      Fugitive  in 
remnant   of  his  army,   some   25,000  in   number,  the  Russian 
camp,  and  join  his  forces  with  those  of  Alexander  of  Russia, 
still  in  arms  against  France. 

Napoleon,  not  content  while  an  enemy  remained  in  arms,  with  inflex- 
ible resolution  resolved  to  make  an  end  of  all  his  adversaries,  and  meet  in 


68  EUROPE  IN  THE  GRASP  OF  THE  IRON  HAND 

battle  the  great  empire  of  the  north.  The  Russian  armies  then  occupied 
Poland,  whose  people,  burning  under  the  oppression  and  injustice  to  which 
they  had  been  subjected,  gladly  welcomed  Napoleon's  specious  offers  to 
bring  them  back  their  lost  liberties,  and  rose  in  his  aid  when  he  marched 
his  armies  into  their  country. 

Here  the  French  found  themselves  exposed  to  unlooked-for  privations. 
They  had  dreamed  of  abundant  stores  of  food,  but  discovered  that  the 
country  they  had  invaded  was,  in  this  wintry  season,  a  desert ;  a  series  of 
frozen  solitudes  incapable  of  feeding  an  army,  and  holding  no  reward  for 
them  other  than  that  of  battle  with  and  victory  over  the  hardy  Russians. 

Napoleon  advanced  to  Warsaw,  the  Polish  capital.  The  Russians  were 
entrenched  behind  the  Narew  and  the  Ukra.  The  French  continued  to 
advance.  The  Russians  were  beaten  and  forced  back  in  every  battle,  several 
furious  encounters  took  place,  and  Alexander's  army  fell  back  upon  the 
Pregel,  intact  and  powerful  still,  despite  the  French  successes.  The  wintry 
chill  and  the  character  of  the  country  seriously  interfered  with  Napoleon's 
plans,  the  troops  being  forced  to  make  their  way  through  thick  and  rain- 
soaked  forests,  and  march  over  desolate  and  marshy  plains.  The  winter  of 
The  French  in  t^le  nort^  f°ught  against  them  like  a  strong  army  and  many 
the  Dreary  of  them  fell  dead  without  a  battle.  Warlike  movements 

Plains  of  became  almost  impossible   to  the  troops  of   the  south,  though 

Poland  r  ,          ..  .      S. 

the   hardy  northeners,  accustomed   to   the  climate,  continued 

their  military  operations. 

By  the  end  of  January  the  Russian  army  was  evidently  approaching  in 
force,  and  immediate  action  became  necessary.  The  cold  increased.  The 
mud  was  converted  into  ice.  On  January  30,  1807,  Napoleon  left  Warsaw 
and  marched  in  search  of  the  enemy.  General  Benningsen  retreated, 
avoiding  battle,  and  on  the  ;th  of  February  entered  the  small  town  of 
Eylau,  from  which  his  troops  were  pushed  by  the  approaching  French.  He 
encamped  outside  the  town,  the  French  in  and  about  it ;  it  was  evident  that 
a  great  battle  was  at  hand. 

The  weather  was  cold.  Snow  lay  thick  upon  the  ground  and  still  fell 
in  great  flakes.  A  sheet  of  ice  covering  some  small  lakes  formed  part  of 
the  country  upon  which  the  armies  were  encamped,  but  was  thick  enough  to 
bear  their  weight.  It  was  a  chill,  inhospitable  country  to  which  the  demon 
of  war  had  come. 

Before  daybreak  on  the  8th  Napoleon  was  in  the  streets  of  Eylau, 
forming  his  line  of  battle  for  the  coming  engagement.  Soon  the  artillery 
of  both  armies  opened,  and  a  rain  of  cannon  balls  began  to  decimate  the 
opposing  ranks.  The  Russian  fire  was  concentrated  on  the  town,  which 


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EUROPE  IN  THE  GRASP  OF  THE  IRON  if  AND  71 

Was  soon  in  flames.     That  of  the  French  was  directed  against  a  hill  which 
the  emperor  deemed  it  important  to  occupy.    The  two  armies,    The  Frightful 
nearly  equal  in  numbers, — the  French  having  75,000  to  the      Struggle  at 
Russian    70,000, — were  but   a  short   distance  apart,   and   the       Eylau 
slaughter  from  the  fierce  cannonade  was  terrible. 

A  series  of  movements  on  both  sides  began,  Davout  marching  upon 
the  Russian  flank  and  Augereau  upon  the  centre,  while  the  Russians 
manoeuvred  as  if  with  a  purpose  to  outflank  the  French  on  the  left.  At  this 
interval  an  unlooked-for  obstacle  interfered  with  the  French  movements,  a 
snow-fall  beginning,  which  grew  so  dense  that  the  armies  lost  sight  of  each 
other,  and  vision  was  restricted  to  a  few  feet.  In  this  semi-darkness  the 
French  columns  lost  their  way,  and  wandered  about  uncertainly.  For  half  an 
hour  the  snow  continued  to  fall.  When  it  ceased  the  French  army  was  in  a 
critical  position.  Its  cohesion  was  lost ;  its  columns  were  straggling  about 
and  incapable  of  supporting  one  another;  many  of  its  superior  officers  were 
wounded.  The  Russians,  on  the  contrary,  were  on  the  point  of  executing 
a  vigorous  turning  movement,  with  20,000  infantry,  supported  by  cavalry 
and  artillery. 

"  Are  you  going  to  let  me  be  devoured  by  these  people  ?"  cried  Napo- 
leon to  Murat,  his  eagle  eye  discerning  the  danger. 

He  ordered  a  grand  charge  of  all  the  cavalry  of  the  army,  consisting 
of  eighty  squadrons.     With  Murat  at  their  head,  they  rushed      Murat's 
like  an  avalanche  on  the  Russian  lines,  breaking  through  the         Mighty 
infantry  and  dispersing  the  cavalry  who  came  to  its  support. 
The  Russian   infantry  suffered   severely  from   this   charge,  its   two   massive 
lines  being  rent  asunder,  while  the  third  fell  back  upon  a  wood  in  the  rear. 
Finally   Davout,    whose    movement    had    been    hindred    by    the    weather, 
reached  the  Russian  rear,  and  in  an  impetuous  charge  drove  them  from  the 
hilly  ground  which  Napoleon  wished  to  occupy. 

The  battle  seemed  lost  to  the  Russians.  They  began  a  retreat,  leaving 
the  ground  strewn  thickly  with  their  dead  and  wounded.  But  at  this  critical 
moment  a  Prussian  force,  some  8,000  strong,  which  was  being  pursued  by 
Marshal  Ney,  arrived  on  the  field  and  checked  the  French  advance  and  the 
Russian  retreat.  Benningsen  regained  sufficient  confidence  to  prepare  for 
final  attack,  when  he  was  advised  of  the  approach  of  Ney,  who  was  two  or 
three  hours  behind  the  Prussians.  At  this  discouraging  news  a  final  retreat 
was  ordered. 

The  French  were  left  masters  of  the  field,  though  little  attempt  was 
made  to  pursue  the  menacing  columns  of  the  enemy,  who  withdrew  in  mili- 
tary array.  It  was  a  victory  that  came  near  being  a  defeat,  and  which, 


72  EUROPE  IN  THE  GRASP  OF  THE  IRON  HAND 

indeed,  both  sides  claimed.  Never  before  had  Napoleon  been  so  stub- 
bornly withstood.  His  success  had  been  bought  at  a  frightful  cost,  and 
The  Cost  of  Konigsberg,  the  old  Prussian  capital,  the  goal  of  his  march, 
Victory  was  still  covered  by  the  compact  columns  of  the  allies.  The 

Frightful  men  were  jn  no  condition  to  pursue.  Food  was  wanting,  and 
they  were  without  shelter  from  the  wintry  chill.  Ney  surveyed  the  terrible 
scene  with  eyes  of  gloom.  "What  a  massacre,"  he  exclaimed  ;  "and  with- 
out result." 

So  severe  was  the  exhaustion  on  both  sides  from  this  great  battle  that 
it  was  four  months  before  hostilities  were  resumed.  Meanwhile  Danzig, 
which  had  been  strongly  besieged,  surrendered,  and  more  than  30,000  men 
were  released  to  reinforce  the  French  army.  Negotiations  for  peace  went 
slowly  on,  without  result,  and  it  was  June  before  hostilities  again  became 
imminent. 

Eylau,  which  now  became  Napoleon's  headquarters,  presented  a  very 
different  aspect  at  this  season  from  that  of  four  months  before.  Then  all 
was  wintry  desolation  ;  now  the  country  presented  a  beautiful  scene  of  green 
woodland,  shining  lakes,  and  attractive  villages.  The  light  corps  of  the  army 
were  in  motion  in  various  directions,  their  object  being  to  get  between  the 
Russians  and  their  magazines  and  cut  off  retreat  to  Konigsberg.  On  June 
1 3th  Napoleon,  with  the  main  body  of  his  army,  marched  towards  Fried- 
land,  a  town  on  the  River  Alle,  in  the  vicinity  of  Konigsberg,  towards  which 
the  Russians  were  marching.  Here,  crossing  the  Alle,  Benningsen  drove 
from  the  town  a  regiment  of  French  hussars  which  had  occupied  it,  and  fell 
with  all  his  force  on  the  corps  of  Marshal  Lannes,  which  alone  had  reached 
the  field. 

Lannes  held  his  ground  with  his  usual  heroic  fortitude,  while  sending 

Napoleon  on         successive    messengers    for    aid    to  the  emperor.      Noon  had 

the  Field  of      passed  when  Napoleon  and  his  staff  reached  the  field  at  full 

gallop,  far  in  advance  of  the  troops.     He  surveyed  the  field 

with  eyes  of  hope.     "It  is  the  i4th  of  June,  the   anniversary  of  Marengo," 

he  said  ;  "  it  is  a  lucky  day  for  us." 

"  Give  me  only  a  reinforcement,"  cried  Oudinot,  "  and  we  will  cast  all 
the  Russians  into  the  water." 

This  seemed  possible.  Benningsen's  troops  were  perilously  concen- 
trated within  a  bend  of  the  river.  Some  of  the  French  generals  advised  de- 
ferring the  battle  till  the  next  day,  as  the  hour  was  late,  but  Napoleon  was 
too  shrewd  to  let  an  advantage  escape  him. 

"  No,"  he  said,  "  one  does  not  surprise  the  enemy  twice  in  such  a  blun- 
der." He  swept  with  his  field-glass  the  masses  of  the  enemy  before  him, 


EUROPE  IN  THE  GRASP  OF  THE  IRON  HAND  73 

then  seized  the  arm  of  Marshal  Ney.  "  You  see  the  Russians  and  the  town 
of  Friedland,"  he  said.  "  March  straight  forward  ;  seize  the  town  ;  take  the 
bridges,  whatever  it  may  cost.  Do  not  trouble  yourself  with  what  is  taking 
place  around  you.  Leave  that  to  me  and  the  army." 

The  troops  were  coming  in  rapidly,  and  marching  to  the  places  assigned 
them.  The  hours  moved  on.  It  was  half-past  five  in  the  afternoon  when 
the  cannon  sounded  the  signal  of  the  coming  fray. 

Meanwhile  Ney's  march   upon   Friedland  had  begun.     A  terrible  fire 
from  the  Russians  swept  his  ranks  as  he  advanced.     Aided  by   The  Assault  of 
cavalry  and  artillery,    he    reached  a  stream  defended   by  the      the  indom- 
Russian  Imperial    Guard.     Before   those   picked    troops    the      »tableNey 
French  recoiled  in  temporary  disorder ;  but  the  division  of  General  Dupont 
marching  briskly  up,  broke   the   Russian  guard,  and   the  pursuing   French 
rushed   into   the   town.      In  a  short  time  it  was  in  flames   and  the  fugitive 
Russians  were  cut  off  from  the  bridges,  which  were  seized  and  set  on  fire. 

The   Russians   made   a  vigorous  effort  to   recover  their  lost  ground, 
General  Gortschakoff  endeavoring  to  drive  the  French  from  the  town,  and 
other  corps  making  repeated  attacks  on  the  French  centre.    All  their  efforts 
were  in  vain.     The  French  columns  continued  to  advance.     By  ten  o'clock 
the  battle  was  at  an  end.     Many  of  the  Russians  had  been  drowned  in  the 
stream,  and  the  field  was  covered  with   their  dead,  whose   numbers  were 
estimated  by  the  boastful  French  bulletins  at   15,000  or  18,000  men,  while 
they  made  the  improbable  claim  of  having  lost  no  more  than   The  Tota, 
500  dead.     Konigsberg,  the  prize  of  victory,  was  quickly  occu-      Defeatof  the 
pied  by  Marshal  Soult,  and  yielded  the  French  a  vast  quantity      Russians 
of  food,  and  a  large  store  of  military  supplies  which  had  been  sent  from 
England  for  Russian  use.     The  King  of  Prussia  had  lost  the  whole  of  his 
possessions  with  the  exception  of  the  single  town  of  Memel. 

Victorious  as  Napoleon  had  been,  he  had  found  the  Russians  no  con- 
temptible foes.     At  Eylau  he  had  come  nearer  defeat  than  ever  before  in 
his  career.     He  was  quite  ready,  therefore,  to  listen  to  overtures  for  peace, 
and  early  in  July  a  notable  interview  took  place  between  him  and  the  Czar 
of  Russia  at  Tilsit,  on  the  Niemen,  the  two  emperors  meeting  on  a  raft  in 
the  centre  of  the  stream.     What  passed  between  them  is  not   The  Emperors 
known.     Some   think   that   they  arranged   for   a   division   of      at  Tilsit  and 
Europe  between  their  respective  empires,  Alexander  taking 
all  the  east  and  Napoleon  all  the  west.     However  that  was, 
the  treaty  of  peace,  .signed  July  8th,  was  a  disastrous  one  for  the  defeated 
Prussian    king,   who  was    punished    for   his   temerity  in    seeking   to    fight 


?4  EUROPE  IN  THE  GRASP  OF  THE  IRON  HAND 

Napoleon  alone  by  the  loss  of  more  than  half  his  kingdom,  while  in  addi 
tion  a  heavy  war  indemnity  was  laid  upon  his  depleted  realms. 

He  was  forced  to  yield  all  the  countries  between  the  Rhine  and  the 
Elbe,  to  consent  to  the  establishment  of  a  dukedom  of  Warsaw,  under 
the  supremacy  of  the  king  of  Saxony,  and  to  the  loss  of  Danzig  and  the 
surrounding  territory,  which  were  converted  into  a  free  State.  A  new 
kingdom,  named  Westphalia,  was  founded  by  Napoleon,  made  up  of  the 
territory  taken  from  Prussia  and  the  states  of  Hesse,  Brunswick  and  South 
Hanover.  His  youngest  brother,  Jerome  Bonaparte,  was  made  its  king. 
It  was  a  further  step  in  his  policy  of  founding  a  western  empire, 

Louisa,  the  beautiful  and  charming  queen  of  Frederick  William,  sought 
Tilsit,  hoping  by  the  seduction  of  her  beauty  and  grace  of  address  to  induce 
Napoleon  to  mitigate  his  harsh  terms.  But  in  vain  she  brought  to  bear 
upon  him  all  the  resources  of  her  intellect  and  her  attractive  charm  of  man- 
ner. He  continued  cold  and  obdurate,  and  she  left  Tilsit  deeply  mortified 
and  humiliated. 

In  northern  Europe  only  one  enemy  of  Napoleon  remained.  Sweden 
retained  its  hostility  to  France,  under  the  fanatical  enmity  of  Gustavus  IV., 
who  believed  himself  the  instrument  appointed  by  Providence  to  reinstate 
the  Bourbon  monarchs  upon  their  thrones.  Denmark,  which  refused  to  ally 
itself  with  England,  was  visited  by  a  British  fleet,  which  bom- 
barded  Copenhagen  and  carried  off  all  the  Danish  ships  of 
war,  an  outrage  which  brought  this  kingdom  into  close  alliance 
with  France.  The  war  in  Sweden  must  have  ended  in  the  conquest  of 
that  country,  had  not  the  people  revolted  and  dethroned  their  obstinate 
king.  Charles  XIII.,  his  uncle,  was  placed  on  the  throne,  but  was  induced 
to  adopt  Napoleon's  marshal  Bernadotte  as  his  son.  The  latter,  as  a  own 
prince,  practically  succeeded  the  incapable  king  in  1810. 

Events  followed  each  other  rapidly.  Napoleon,  in  his  desire  to  add 
kingdom  after  kingdom  to  his  throne,  invaded  Portugal  and  interfered  in 
the  affairs  of  Spain  from  whose  throne  he  removed  the  last  of  the  Bourbon 
kings,  replacing  him  by  his  brother,  Joseph  Bonaparte.  The  result  was  a 
revolt  of  the  Spanish  people  which  all  his  efforts  proved  unable  to  quell, 
aided,  as  they  were  eventually,  by  the  power  of  England.  In  Italy  his 
intrigues  continued.  Marshal  Murat  succeeded  Joseph  Bonaparte  on  the 
throne  of  Naples.  Eliza,  Napoleon's  sister,  was  made  queen  of  Tuscany. 
The  Pope  a  The  temporal  sovereignity  of  the  Pope  was  seriously  inter- 
Captive  at  fered  with  and  finally,  in  1809,  tne  pontiff  was  forcibly 
jbleau  removecj  from  Rome  and  the  states  of  the  Church  were  added 
to  the  French  territory,  Pius  VII.,  the  pope,  was  eventually  brought  to 


EUROPE  IN  THE  GRASP  OF  THE  IRON  HAND  75 

France  and  obliged  to  reside  at  Fontainebleau,  where  he  persistently  refused 
to  yield  to  Napoleon's  wishes  or  perform  any  act  of  ecclesiastical  authority 
while  held  in  captivity. 

These  various  arbitrary  acts  had  their  natural  result,  that  of  active 
hostility.  The  Austrians  beheld  them  with  growing  indignation,  and  at 
length  grew  so  exasperated  that,  despite  their  many  defeats,  they  decided 
again  to  dare  the  power  and  genius  of  the  conqueror.  In  April,  1809,  the 
Vienna  Cabinet  once  more  declared  war  against  France  and  made  all  haste 
to  put  its  armies  in  the  field.  Stimulated  by  this,  a  revolt  broke  out  in  the 
Tyrol,  the  simple-minded  but  brave  and  sturdy  mountaineers  gathering  under 
the  leadership  of  Andreas  Hofer,  a  man  of  authority  among  them,  and  wel- 
coming the  Austrian  troops  sent  to  their  aid. 

As  regards  this  war  in   the  Tyrol,  there  is   no  need  here  to  go   into 
details.     It   must  suffice  to  say  that  the  bold  peasantry,  aided    Andreas  Hofer 
by  the  natural  advantages  of   their  mountain  land,  for  a  time      and  the  War 
freed  themselves  from  French  dominion,  to  the  astonishment 
and  admiration  of  Europe.      But  their  freedom  was  of  brief  duration,  fresh 
troops  were  poured  into   the  country,  and   though  the  mountaineers  won 
more  than  one  victory,  they  proved   no  match  for  the  power  of  their  foes. 
Their  country  was  conquered,  and    Hofer,  their  brave  leader,  was  taken  by 
the  French  and  remorselessly  put  to  death  by  the  order  of  Napoleon. 

The  struggle  in  the  Tyrol  was  merely  a  side  issue  in  the  new  war  with 
Austria,  which  was  conducted  on  Napoleon's  side  with  his  usual  celerity  of 
movement.     The  days  when   soldiers  are  whisked   forward   at  locomotive 
speed  had  not  yet  dawned,  yet  the  French  troops  made  extraordinary  prog- 
ress on  foot,  and  war  was   barely  declared    before    the  army  of  Napoleon 
covered  Austria.     This  army  was  no  longer  made  up  solely  of  Frenchmen. 
The  Confederation  of    the  Rhine    practically  formed    part    of    Napoleon's 
empire,  and  Germans   now  fought  side  by  side  with  Frenchmen  ;  Marshal 
Lefebvre  leading  the  Bavarians,  Bernadotte  the  Saxons,  Au-   The  Arm 
gereau  the  men  of  Baden,  Wurtemberg,  and  Hesse.     On  the      Napoleon 
other  hand,  the  Austrians  were  early  in  motion,  and  by  the  loth      Marches 
of  April  the  Archduke  Charles  had  crossed  the  Inn  with  his 
army  and  the  King  of  Bavaria,  Napoleon's  ally,  was  in  flight  from  his  capital. 

The  quick  advance  of  the  Austrians  had  placed  the  French  army  in 
danger.  Spread  out  over  an  extent  of  twenty-five  leagues,  it  ran  serious 
risk  of  being  cut  in  two  by  the  rapidly  marching  troops  of  the  Archduke. 
Napoleon,  who  reached  the  front  on  the  i;th,  was  not  slow  to  perceive  the 
peril  and  to  take  steps  of  prevention.  A  hasty  concentration  of  his  forces 
was  ordered  and  vigorously  begun. 
$ 


76  EUROPE  IN  THE  GRASP  OF  THE  IRON  HAND 

'  Never  was  there  need  for  more  rapidity  of  movement  than  now,"  he 
wrote  to  Massena.      "  Activity,  activity,  speed  !" 

Speed  was  the  order  of  the  day.     The  French  generals  ably  seconded 

the    anxious   activity  of  their  chief.     The  soldiers    fairly  rushed  together. 

A  brief   hesitation    robbed    the   Austrains   of  the   advantage 

Overcome         which  they  had  hoped  to  gain.     The  Archduke  Charles,  one 

of  the  ablest  tacticians  ever  opposed   to  Napoleon,  had  the 

weakness   of   over-prudence,   and  caution  robbed    him  of  the   opportunity 

given  him  by  the  wide  dispersion  of  the  French. 

He  was  soon  and  severely  punished  for  his  slowness.  On  the  igth 
Davout  defeated  the  Austrians  at  Fangen  and  made  a  junction  with  the 
Bavarians.  On  the  2Oth  and  2ist  Napoleon  met  and  defeated  them  in  a 
series  of  engagements.  Meanwhile  the  Archduke  Charles  fell  on  Ratisbon, 
held  by  a  single  French  regiment,  occupied  that  important  place,  and 
attacked  Davout  at  Eckmuhl.  Here  a  furious  battle  took  place.  Davout. 
outnumbered,  maintained  his  position  for  three  days.  Napoleon,  warned  o( 
the  peril  of  his  marshal,  bade  him  to  hold  on  to  the  death,  as  he  was 
hastening  to  his  relief  with  40,000  men.  The  day  was  well  advanced  when 
the  emperor  came  up  and  fell  with  his  fresh  troops  on  the  Austrians,  who, 
still  bravely  fighting,  were  forced  back  upon  Ratisbon.  During  the  night 
the  Archduke  wisely  withdrew  and  marched  for  Bohemia,  where  a  large 
reinforcement  awaited  him.  On  the  23d  Napoleon  attacked  the  town,  and 
Th  Battl  f  carried  it  in  spite  of  a  vigorous  defence.  His  proclamation  to 
Eckmuhl  and  his  soldiers  perhaps  overestimated  the  prizes  of  this  brief  but 
the  Capture  active  campaign,  which  he  declared  to  be  a  hundred  cannon, 

of  Ratisbon        f  n  ,  ...  .  , 

forty  nags,  all  the  enemy  s  artillery,  50,000  prisoners,  a  large 
number  of  wagons,  etc.  Half  this  loss  would  have  fully  justified  the  Arch- 
duke's retreat. 

In  Italy  affairs  went  differently.     Prince   Eugene   Beauharnais,  for  the 
first  time   in   command  of  a   French  army,  found   himself  opposed  by  the 

Archduke  John,  and  met  with  a  defeat.  On  April  i6th,  seeking 
The  Campaign  ,  ,  ,  .  *  »  ,  ,  i 

in  Italy    '         to    retrieve    his  disaster,  he   attacked   the  Archduke,  but   the 

Austrians  bravely  held  their  positions,  and  the  French  were 
again  obliged  to  retreat.  General  Macdonald,  an  officer  of  tried  ability, 
now  joined  the  prince,  who  took  up  a  defensive  position  on  the  Adige, 
whither  the  Austrians  marched.  On  the  ist  of  May  Macdonald  perceived 
among  them  indications  of  withdrawal  from  their  position. 

"  Victory  in  Germany  !"  he  shouted  to  the   prince.      "  Now  is  our  time 
for  a  forward  march  !" 


EUROPE  IN  THE  GRASP  OF  THE  IRON  HAND  77 

He  was  correct,  the  Archduke  John  had  been  recalled  in  haste  to  aid 
his  brother  in  the  defence  of  Vienna,  on  which  the  French  were  advancing 
in  force. 

The  campaign  now  became  a  race  for  the  capital  of  Austria.  During 
its  progress  several  conflicts  took  place,  in  each  of  which  the  French  won. 
The  city  was  defended  by  the  Archduke  Maximilian  with  an  army  of  over 
15,000  men,  but  he  found  it  expedient  to  withdraw,  and  on  the  I3th  the 
troops  of  Napoleon  occupied  the  place.  Meanwhile  Charles  had  concen- 
trated his  troops  and  was  marching  hastily  towards  the  opposite  side  of  the 
Danube,  whither  his  brother  John  was  advancing  from  Italy.. 

It  was  important  for  Napoleon  to  strike  a  blow  before  this  junction 
could  be  made.  He  resolved  to  cross  the  Danube  in  the  suburbs  of  the 
capital  itself,  and  attack  the  Austrians  before  they  were  reinforced.  In  the 
vicinity  of  Vienna  the  channel  of  the  river  is  broken  by  many  islets.  At  the 
island  of  Lobau,  the  point  chosen  for  the  attempt,  the  river  is  broad  and 
deep,  but  Lobau  is  separated  from  the  opposite  bank  by  only  a  narrow 
branch,  while  two  smaller  islets  offered  themselves  as  aids  in  the  construc- 
tion of  bridges,  there  being  four  channels,  over  each  of  which  a  bridge  was 
thrown. 

The  work  was  a  difficult  one.     The  Danube,  swollen   by   The  Bridges 
the  melting  snows,  imperilled   the   bridges,  erected  with   diffi-      over  the 
culty  and  braced  by   insufficient  cordage.      But    despite    this       Danube 
peril   the   crossing  began,  and  on  May  2oth  Marshal  Massena   reached   the 
other  side  and  posted  his  troops  in  the  two  villages  of  Aspern  and  Essling, 
and  along  a  deep  ditch  that  connected  them. 

As  yet  only  the  vanguard  of  the  Austrians  had  arrived.  Other  corps 
soon  appeared,  and  by  the  afternoon  of  the  2ist  the  entire  army,  from 
70,000  to  80.000  strong,  faced  the  French,  still  only  half  their  number,  and 
in  a  position  of  extreme  peril,  for  the  bridge  over  the  main  channel  of  the 
river  had  broken  during  the  night,  and  the  crossing  was  cut  off  in  its  midst. 

Napoleon,  however,  was  straining  every  nerve  to  repair  the  bridge,  and 
Massena  and  Lannes,  in  command  of  the  advance,  fought  like  men  fighting 
for  their  lives.  The  Archduke  Charles,  the  ablest  soldier  Napoleon  had  yet 
encountered,  hurled  his  troops  in  masses  upon  Aspern,  which  covered  the 
bridge  to  Lobau.  Several  times  it  was  taken  and  retaken,  but  the  French 
held  on  with  a  death  grip,  all  the  strength  of  the  Austrians  seeming  insuffi- 
cient to  break  the  hold  of  Lannes  upon  Essling.  An  advance  in  force, 
which  nearly  cut  the  communication  between  the  two  villages,  was  checked 
by  an  impetuous  cavalry  charge,  and  night  fell,  leaving  the  situation 
unchanged. 


78  EUROPE  IN  THE  GRASP  Of  THE  IRON  HAND 

At  dawn  of  the  next  day  more  than  70,000  French  had  crossed  the 
stream  ;  Marshal  Davoijt's  corps,  with  part  of  the  artillery  and  most  of  the 
ammunition,  being  still  on  the  right  bank.  At  this  critical  moment  the  large 
bridge,  against  which  the  Austrians  had  sent  fireships,  boats  laden  with 
stone  and  other  floating  missiles,  broke  for  the  third  time,  and  the  engin- 
eers of  the  French  army  were  again  forced  to  the  most  strenuous  and  hasty 
exertions  for  its  repair. 

The  struggle  of  the  day  that  had  just  begun  was  one  of  extraordinary 

valor  and  obstinacy.      Men    went    down   in  multitudes ;    now 

struggle  of       the  Austrians,  now  the  French,  were  repulsed  ;  the  Austrians, 

Esslingand       impetuously  assailed,  slowly  fell  back;  and  Lannes  was    pre- 

Aspern  .  ,  .  .     . 

paring  for  a  vigorous  movement  designed  to  pierce  their 
centre,  when  word  was  brought  Napoleon  that  the  great  bridge  had  again 
yielded  to  the  floating  debris,  carrying  with  it  a  regiment  of  cuirassiers, 
and  cutting  off  the  supply  of  ammunition.  Lannes  was  at  once  ordered  to 
fall  back  upon  the  villages,  and  simultaneously  the  Austrians  made  a 
powerful  assault  on  the  French  centre,  which  was  checked  with  great 
difficulty.  Five  times  the  charge  was  renewed,  and  though  the  enemy  was 
finally  repelled,  it  became  evident  that  Napoleon,  for  the  first  time  in  his 
career,  had  met  with  a  decided  check.  Night  fell  at  length,  and  reluctantly 
he  gave  the  order  to  retreat.  He  had  lost  more  than  a  battle,  he  had  lost 
the  brilliant  soldier  Lannes,  who  fell  with  a  mortal  wound.  Back  to  the 
Napoleon  Forced  island  of  Lobau  marched  the  French;  Massena,  in  charge  of  the 
to  his  First  rear-guard,  bringing  over  the  last  regiments  in  safety.  More 

than  40,000  men  lay  dead  and  wounded  on  that  fatal  field, 
which  remained  in  Austrian  hands.  Napoleon,  at  last,  was  obliged  to 
acknowledge  a  repulse,  if  not  a  defeat,  and  the  nations  of  Europe  held  up 
their  heads  with  renewed  hope.  It  had  been  proved  that  the  Corsican  was 
not  invincible. 

Some  of  Napoleon's  generals,  deeply  disheartened,  advised  an  immedi- 
ate retreat,  but  the  emperor  had  no  thought  of  such  a  movement.  It 
would  have  brought  a  thousand  disasters  in  its  train.  On  the  contrary,  he 
held  the  island  of  Lobau  with  a  strong  force,  and  brought  all  his  resources 
to  bear  on  the  construction  of  a  bridge  that  would  defy  the  current  of  the 
stream.  At  the  same  time  reinforcements  were  hurried  forward,  until  by 
the  ist  of  July,  he  had  around  Vienna  an  army  of  150,000  men.  The 
Austrians  had  probably  from  135,000  to  140,000.  The  archduke  had, 
morever,  strongly  fortified  the  positions  of  the  recent  battle,  expecting  the 
attack  upon  them  to  be  resumed. 


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NAPOLEON  AND  THE  QUEEN  OF  PRUSSIA  AT  TILSlT    (FROM  THE  PAINTING  BY  GROS) 

Tilsit  is  a  city  of  about  25,000  inhabitants  in  Eastern  Prussia.     Here  the  Treaty  of  Peace  between  the  French 

and  Russian  Emperors  and  also  between  France  and  Prussia  was  signed  in  July,  1807 


EUROPE  IN  THE  GRASP  OF  THE  IRON  HAND  81 

Napoleon  had  no  such  intention.      He  had  selected  the  heights  ranging 
from  Neusiedl  to  Wagram,  strongly  occupied  by  the  Austrians,    The  second 
but  not  fortified,  as  his  point  of  attack,  and  on  the  night  of      Crossing  of 
July  4th  bridges  were  thrown  from  the  island  of  Lobau  to  the       the  Danube 
mainland,  and  the  army  which  had  been  gathering  for  several  days  on  the 
island    began    its    advance.      It   moved   as  a  whole   against  the  heights  of 
Wagram,  occupying  Aspern  and  Essling  in  its  advance. 

The  great  battle  began  on  the  succeeding  day.  It  was  hotly  contested 
at  all  points,  but  attention  may  be  confined  to  the  movement  against  the 
plateau  of  Wagram,  which  had  been  entrusted  to  Marshal  Davout.  The 
height  was  gained  after  a  desperate  struggle  ;  the  key  of  the 

battlefield  was  held  by  the  French  ;  the  Austrians,  impetuously    The  Victory 
.    *  '  *         at  Wagram 

assailed  at  every  point,  and  driven  from  every  point  01  vantage, 

began  a  retreat.  The  Archduke  Charles  had  anxiously  looked  for  the  com- 
ing of  his  brother  John,  with  the  army  under  his  command.  He  waited  in 
vain,  the  laggard  prince  failed  to  appear,  and  retreat  became  inevitable.  The 
battle  had  already  lasted  ten  hours,  and  the  French  held  all  the  strong  points 
of  the  field  ;  but  the  Austrians  withdrew  slowly  and  in  battle  array,  presenting 
a  front  that  discouraged  any  effort  to  pursue.  There  was  nothing  resem- 
bling a  rout. 

The  Archduke  Charles  retreated  to  Bohemia.  His  forces  were  dis- 
persed during  the  march,  but  he  had  70,000  men  with  him  when  Napoleon 
reached  his  front  at  Znaim,  on  the  road  to  Prague,  on  the  nth  of  July. 
Further  hostilities  were  checked  by  a  request  for  a  truce,  preliminary  to  a 
peace.  The  battle,  already  begun,  was  stopped,  and  during  the  night  an 
armistice  was  signed.  The  vigor  of  the  Austrian  resistance  and  the  doubt- 
ful attitude  of  the  other  powers  made  Napoleon  willing  enough  to  treat  for 
terms. 

The  peace,  which  was  finally  signed  at  Vienna,  October  14,  1809,  took 
from  Austria  50,000  square  miles  of  territory  and  3,000,000 
inhabitants,  together  with  a  war  contribution  of  $85,000,000, 
while  her  army  was  restricted  to  150,000  men.  The  overthrow 
of  the  several  outbreaks  which  had  taken  place  in  north  Germany,  the  defeat 
of  a  British  expedition  against  Antwerp,  and  the  suppression  of  the  revolt 
in  the  Tyrol,  ended  all  organized  opposition  to  Napoleon,  who  was  once 
more  master  of  the  European  situation. 

Raised  by  this  signal  success  to  the  summit  of  his  power,  lord  para- 
mount of  Western  Europe,  only  one  thing  remained  to  trouble  the  mind  of 
the  victorious  emperor.  His  wife,  Josephine,  was  childless  ;  his  throne 
threatened  to  be  left  without  an  heir.  Much  as  he  had  seemed  to  love  his 


82  EUROPE  IN  THE  GRASP  OF  THE  IRON  HAND 

wife,  the  companion  of  his  early  days,  when  he  was  an  unknown  and  uncon- 
sidered  subaltern,  seeking  humbly  enough  for  military  employment  in  Paris, 
yet  ambition  and  the  thirst  for  glory  were  always  the  ruling  passions  in  his 
nature,  and  had  now  grown  so  dominant  as  to  throw  love  and  wifely  devo- 
tion utterly  into  the  shade.  He  resolved  to  set  aside  his  wife  and  seek  a 
new  bride  among  the  princesses  of  Europe,  hoping  in  this  way  to  leave  an 
heir  of  his  own  blood  as  successor  to  his  imperial  throne. 

Negotiations  were  entered  into  with  the  courts  of  Europe  to  obtain  a 
daughter  of  one  of  the  proud  royal  houses  as  the  spouse  of  the  plebeian 
emperor  of  France.  No  maiden  of  less  exalted  rank  than  a  princess  of 
the  imperial  families  of  Russia  or  Austria  was  high  enough  to  meet  the 
ambitious  aims  of  this  proud  lord  of  battles,  and  negotiations  were  entered 
into  with  both,  ending  in  the  selection  of  Maria  Louisa,  daughter  of  the 
Emperor  Francis  of  Austria,  who  did  not  venture  to  refuse  a  demand  for 
his  daughter's  hand  from  the  master  of  half  his  dominions. 

Napoleon  was  not  long  in  finding  a  plea  for  setting  aside 
The  Divorce  of  ^  "*  .  *> 

Josephine  and  the  wite  ot  his  days  ot  poverty  and  obscurity.  A  defect  m 
Marriage  of  the  marriage  was  alleged,  and  the  transparent  farce  went  on. 
Maria  Louisa  ,ru  ,.  r  T  u-  u  1  j  u  i  r 

1  he  divorce  ot  Josephine  has  awakened  the  sympathy  of   a 

century.  It  was,  indeed,  a  piteous  example  of  state-craft,  and  there  can  be 
no  doubt  that  Napoleon  suffered  in  his  heart  while  yielding  to  the  dictates 
of  his  unbridled  ambition.  The  marriage  with  Maria  Louisa,  on  the  2d  of 
April,  1810,  was  conducted  with  all  possible  pomp  and  display,  no  less  than 
five  queens  carrying  the  train  of  the  bride  in  the  august  ceremony.  The 
purpose  of  the  marriage  did  not  fail ;  the  next  year  a  son  was  born  to 
Napoleon.  But  this  imperial  youth,  who  was  dignified  with  the  title  of 
King  of  Rome,  was  destined  to  an  inglorious  life,  as  an  unconsidered  te'iant 
of  the  gilded  halls  of  his  imperial  grandfather  of  Austria. 


CHAPTER   IV. 

The  Decline  and  Fall  of  Napoleon's  Empire. 

AMBITION,  unrestrained  by  caution,  uncontrolled  by  moderation,  has 
its  inevitable  end.     An  empire  built  upon  victory,  trusting  solely  to 
military  genius,  prepares    for    itself  the   elements   of   its    overthrow. 
This  fact  Napoleon  was  to  learn.     In  the  outset  of  his  career  he  opposed  a 
new  art  of  war  to  the  obsolete  one  of  his  enemies,  and  his  path   to  empire 
was   over  the   corpses   of   slaughtered  armies  and  the  ruins  of  fallen   king- 
doms.     But  year  by  year  they  learned  his  art,  in  war  after  war  their  resist- 
ance -grew    more    stringent,    each    successive    victory  was  won  with   more 

difficulty  and  at  greater  cost,  and  finally,  at  the  crossing  of  the 

T-V         i          1  j  •  r    TVT         i  1     •  i      The  Causes  of 

Danube,  the  energy  and  genius  of  Napoleon  met  their  equal,       the  Rise  and 

and  the  standards  of  France  went  back  in  defeat.     It  was  the      Decline  of 

tocsin  of  fate.      His  career  of  victory  had  culminated.      From       Napoleon's 
,,.,,.,  Power 

that  day  its  decline  began. 

It  is  interesting  to  find  that  the  first  effective  check  to  Napoleon's 
victorious  progress  came  from  one  of  the  weaker  nations  of  Europe,  a 
power  which  the  conqueror  contemned  and  thought  to  move  as  one  of  the 
minor  pieces  in  his  game  of  empire.  Spain  at  that  time  had  reached  almost 
the  lowest  stage  of  its  decline.  Its  king  was  an  imbecile  ;  the  heir  to  the 
throne  a  weakling ;  Godoy,  the  "  Prince  of  the  Peace,"  the  monarch's 
favorite,  an  ambitious  intriguer.  Napoleon's  armies  had  invaded  Portugal 
and  forced  its  monarch  to  embark  for  Brazil,  his  American 

Aims  and  In- 

domain.      A  similar  movement  was  attempted  in  Spain.     This      trigues  in 

country  the  base  Godoy  betrayed  to  Napoleon,  and  then,  Portugal  and 
frightened  by  the  consequences  of  his  dishonorable  intrigues, 
sought  to  escape  with  the  king  and  court  to  the  Spanish  dominions  in 
America  His  scheme  was  prevented  by  an  outbreak  of  the  people  of 
Madrid,  and  Napoleon,  ambitiously  designing  to  add  the  peninsula  to  his 
empire,  induced  both  Charles  IV.  and  his  son  Ferdinand  to  resign  from  the 
throne.  He  replaced  them  by  his  brother,  Joseph  Bonaparte,  who,  on  June 
6,  1808,  was  named  King  of  Spain. 

Hitherto  Napoleon  had  dealt  with  emperors  and  kings,  whose  overthrow 
carried  with  it  that  of  their  people.  In  Spain  he  had  a  new  element,  the 

(83) 


84  THE  DECLINE  AND  FALL  OF  NAPOLEON'S  EMPIRE 

people  itself,  to  deal  with.    The  very  weakness  of  Spain  proved  its  strength. 
Deprived  of  their  native  monarchs,  and  given  a  king  not  of  their  own  choice, 
the  whole  people   rose   in  rebellion  and  defied  Napoleon  and 
ance  of  the       his   armies.     An  insurrection   broke   out   in  Madrid  in  which 
People  of          1,200  French  soldiers  were   slain.     Juntas  were  formed  in  dif- 
ferent cities,  which  assumed  the  control  of  affairs  and  refused 
obedience  to  the  new  king.     From  end  to  end  of  Spain   the   people  sprang 
to  arms  and  began  a  guerilla  warfare  which  the  troops  of  Napoleon  sought 
in  vain  to  quell.     The  bayonets  of  the  French  were  able   to  sustain   King 
Joseph  and  his  court  in  Madrid,  but  proved  powerless  to  put  down  the  peo- 
ple     Each  city,  each  district,  became  a  separate  centre  of  war,  each  had  to 
be  conquered  separately,  and  the  strength  of  the   troops  was  consumed  in 
petty  contests  with  a  people  who  avoided  open  warfare  and  dealt  in  surprises 
and  scattered  fights,  in  which  victory  counted  for  little  and  needed  to  be  re- 
peated a  thousand  times. 

The  Spanish  did  more  than  this.      They  put  an  army  in  the  field  which 

s  ain's  Bril         was  defeated  ^Y  tne   French,  but   they  revenged   themselves 

liant  Victory     brilliantly  at   Baylen,  in   Andalusia,   where   General    Dupont, 

and  King  Jo-     with  a  corps  2O,ooo  strong,  was  surrounded  in  a  position  from 

seph's  Flight         ,  .   ,      ,  ,     ,  .  j        u-          u 

which  there  was  no   escape,  and   forced   to  surrender  himself 

and  his  men  as  prisoners  of  war. 

This  undisciplined  people  had  gained  a  victory  over  France  which  none 
of  the  great  powers  of  Europe  could  match.  The  Spaniards  were  filled 
with  enthusiasm  ;  King  Joseph  hastily  abandoned  Madrid  ;  the  French  armies 
retreated  across  the  Ebro.  Soon  encouraging  news  came  from  Portugal. 
The  English,  hitherto  mainly  confining  themselves  to  naval  warfare  and  to 
aiding  the  enemies  of  Napoleon  with  money,  had  landed  an  army  in  that 
country  under  Sir  Arthur  Wellesley  (afterwards  Lord  Wellington)  and  other 
generals,  which  would  have  captured  the  entire  French  army  had  it  not 
capitulated  on  the  terms  of  a  free  passage  to  France.  For  the  time  being 
the  peninsula  of  Spain  and  Portugal  was  free  from  Napoleon's  power. 

The  humiliating  reverse  to  his  arms  called  Napoleon  himself  into  the 

field.      He  marched  at  the  head  of  an  army  into  Spain,  defeated  the  insur- 

The  Heroic          gents  wherever  met,  and  reinstated  his  brother  on  the  throne. 

Defence  of        The  city  of  Saragossa,  which  made  one  ot  tne  most  heroic 

defences  known  in  history,  was  taken,  and  the  advance  of  the 

British  armies  was  checked.      And  yet,  though  Spain   was  widely  overrun, 

the   people   did   not    yield.      The    junta    at  Cadiz    defied    the    French,  the 

guerillas  continued  in  the  field,  and  the  invaders  found  themselves  baffled 

by  an  enemy  who  was  felt  oftener  than  seen. 


THE  DECLINE  AND  FALL  OF  NAPOLEON'S  EMPIRE  85 

The  Austrian  war  called  away  the  emperor  and  the  bulk  of  his  troops, 
but  after  it  was  over  he  filled  Spain  with  his  veterans,  increasing  the 
strength  of  the  army  there  to  300,000  men,  under  his  ablest  generals,  Soult, 
Massena,  Ney,  Marmont,  Macdonald  and  others.  They  marched  through 
Spain  from  end  to  end,  yet,  though  they  held  all  the  salient  points,  the 
people  refused  to  submit,  but  from  their  mountain  fastnesses  kept  up  a 
petty  and  annoying  war. 

Massena,  in  1811,  invaded  Portugal,  where  Wellington  with  an  English 

army  awaited  him  behind  the  strong  lines  of  Torres  Vedras, 

,  .  ,       .  .          .  .  '    Wellington's 

which  the  ever-victorious  rrencn  sought  in  vain  to  carry  by      Career  in 

assault.     Massena  was   compelled    to    retreat,  and  Soult,  by      Portugal  and 
whom   the   emperor    replaced    him,   was   no    more    successful      ?pa" 
against  the  shrewd  English  general.     At  length  Spain  won  the  reward  of 
her    patriotic   defence.      The    Russian    campaign    of    1812    compelled    the 
emperor  to  deplete  his  army  in  that  country,  and  Wellington  came  to  the 
aid  of  the  patriots,  defeated  Marmont  at  Salamanca,  entered  Madrid,  and 
forced  King  Joseph  once  more  to  flee  from  his  unquiet  throne. 

For  a  brief  interval  he  was  restored  by  the  French  army  under  Soult 
and  Suchet,  but  the  disasters  of  the  Russian  campaign  brought  the  reign 
of  King  Joseph  to  a  final  end,  and  forced  him  to  give  up  the  pretence  of 
reigning   over   a  people   who  were  unflinchingly  determined   The  ^eward 
to  have  no  king  but  one  of  their  own  choice.     The  story  of      of  Patriotic 
the  Spanish  war  ends  in   1813,  when  Wellington  defeated  the      Valor 
French  at  Vittoria,  pursued  them  across  the  Pyrenees,  and  set  foot  upon  the 
soil  of  France. 

While  these  events  were  taking  place  in  Spain  the  power  of  Napoleon 
was  being  shattered  to  fragments  in  the  north.  On  the  banks  of  the  Nie- 
men,  a  river  that  flows  between  Prussia  and  Poland,  there  gath- 

j  ,  j      £    T  .  ,  A  Record  of 

ered  near   the  end  ot  June,  1812,   an  immense  army  ol  more      Disaster 
than  600,000  men,  attended  by  an  enormous  multitude  of  non- 
combatants,  their  purpose  being  the  invasion  of  the  empire  of  Russia.     Of 
this  great  army,  made  up  of  troops  from  half  the  nations  of  Europe,  there 
reappeared  six  months  later  on  that  broad   stream  about  16,000  armed  men, 
almost  all  that  were  left  of  that   stupendous  host.     The  remainder  had  per- 
ished on  the  desert  soil  or  in  the  frozen   rivers  of  Russia,  few  of  them  sur- 
viving as  prisoners  in  Russian  hands.     Such  was  the  character  of  the  dread 
catastrophe   that  broke  the  power  of  the   mighty  conqueror  and  delivered 
Europe  from  his  autocratic  grasp. 

The  breach  of  relations  between  Napoleon  and  Alexander  was  largely 
due  to  the  arbitrary  and  high-handed  proceedings  of  the  French  emperor, 


86  THE  DECLINE  AND  FALL  OF  NAPOLEON'S  EMPIRE 

who  was  accustomed  to  deal  with  the  map  of  Europe  as  if  it  represented  his 
private  domain.     He  offended  Alexander  by  enlarging  the  duchy  of  Warsaw 
Napoleon  and       — one  °^  ^is  own  creations — and  deeply  incensed  him  by  ex- 
theCzarat       tending  the  French  empire  to  the  shores  of  the   Baltic,  thus 
Enmity  robbing  of  his  dominion  the  Duke  of  Oldenburg,  a  near  rela- 

tive of  Alexander.  On  the  other  hand  the  Czar  declined  to  submit  the  com- 
mercial interests  of  his  country  to  the  rigor  of  Napoleon's  "  continental 
blockade,"  and  made  a  new  tariff,  which  interfered  with  the  importation  of 
French  and  favored  that  of  English  goods.  These  and  other  acts  in  which 
Alexander  chose  to  place  his  own  interests  in  advance  of  those  of  Napoleon 
were  as  wormwood  to  the  haughty  soul  of  the  latter,  and  he  determined  to 
punish  the  Russian  autocrat  as  he  had  done  the  other  monarchs  of  Europe 
who  refused  to  submit  to  his  dictation. 

For  a  year  or  two  before  war  was  declared  Napoleon  had  been  prepar- 
ing for  the  greatest  struggle  of  his  life,  adding  to  his  army  by  the  most  rig- 
orous methods  of  conscription  and  collecting  great  magazines  of  war  mate- 
rial, though  still  professing  friendship  for  Alexander.  The  latter,  however, 
was  not  deceived.  He  prepared,  on  his  part,  for  the  threatened  struggle, 
made  peace  with  the  Turks,  and  formed  an  alliance  with  Bernadotte,  the 
crown  prince  of  Sweden,  who  had  good  reason  to  be  offended  with  his  former 
lord  and  master.  Napoleon,  on  his  side,  allied  himself  with  Prussia  and 
Austria,  and  added  to  his  army  large  contingents  of  troops  from  the  German 
states.  At  length  the  great  conflict  was  ready  to  begin  between  the  two 
autocrats,  the  Emperors  of  the  East  and  the  West,  and  Europe  resounded 
with  the  tread  of  marching  feet. 

In  the  closing  days  of  June  the  grand  army  crossed  the  Niemen,  its  last 
The  invasion  of    regiments  reaching  Russian  soil  by  the  opening  of  July.     Na- 
Russiabythe    poleon,  with  the  advance,  pressed  on  to  Wilna,  the  capital  of 
Grand  Army     Lithuania.     On  all  sides  the  Poles  rose   in   enthusiastic   hope, 
and  joined  the  ranks  of  the  man  whom   they  looked  upon  as  their  deliverer. 
Onward  went  the  great  army,  marching  with  Napoleon's  accustomed  rapid- 
ity, seeking  to  prevent  the  concentration  of  the  divided  Russian  forces,  and 
advancing  daily  deeper  into  the  dominions  of  the  czar. 

The  French  emperor  had  his  plans  well  laid.  He  proposed  to  meet  the 
Russians  in  force  on  some  interior  field,  win  from  them  one  of  his  accus- 
tomed brilliant  victories,  crush  them  with  his  enormous  columns,  and  force 
the  dismayed  czar  to  sue  for  peace  on  his  own  terms.  But  plans  need  two 
sides  for  their  consummation,  and  the  Russian  leaders  did  not  propose  to 
lose  the  advantage  given  them  by  nature.  On  and  on  went  Napoleon, 
deeper  and  deeper  into  that  desolate  land,  but  the  great  army  he  was  to 


THE  DECLINE  AND  FALL  OF  NAPOLEON'S  EMPIRE  87 

crush  failed  to  loom   up  before  him,  the  broad  plains  still   spread    onward 
empty  of  soldiers,  and  disquiet  began  to  assail  his  imperious  soul  as  he  found 
the  Russian  hosts  keeping  constantly  beyond  his  reach,  luring 
him  ever  deeper  into  their  vast  territory.     In  truth  Barclay  de      Baffled  by 
Tolly,   the    czar's    chief  in    command,    had    adopted  a  policy      theRussian 
which  was  sure  to  prove  fatal  to  Napoleon's  purpose,  that  of 
persistently  avoiding  battle  and  keeping  the  French  in  pursuit  of  a  fleeting 
will-of-the-wisp,  while  their  army  wasted  away  from  natural  disintegration  in 
that  inhospitable  clime. 

He  was  correct  in  his  views.  Desertion,  illness,  the  death  of  young 
recruits  who  could  not  endure  the  hardships  of  a  rapid  march  in  the  severe 
heat  of  midsummer,  began  their  fatal  work.  Napoleon's  plan  of  campaign 
proved  a  total  failure.  The  Russians  would  not  wait  to  be  defeated,  and 
each  day's  march  opened  a  wider  circle  of  operations  before  the  advancing 
host,  whom  the  interminable  plain  filled  with  a  sense  of  hopelessness.  The 
heat  was  overpowering,  and  men  dropped  from  the  ranks  as  rapidly  as 
chough  on  a  field  of  battle.  At  Vitebsk  the  army  was  inspected,  and  the 
emperor  was  alarmed  at  the  rapid  decrease  in  his  forces.  Some  of  the  divi- 
sions had  lost  more  than  a  fourth  of  their  men,  in  every  corps  the  ranks 
were  depleted,  and  reinforcements  already  had  to  be  set  on  the  march. 

Onward  they  went,  here  and  there  bringing  the  Russians  to  bay  in  a 
minor  engagement,  but  nowhere  meeting  them  in  numbers.  Europe  waited 
in  vain  for  tidings  of  a  great  battle,  and  Napoleon  began  to  look  upon  his 
proud  army  with  a  feeling  akin  to  despair.  He  was  not  alone  in  his  eager- 
ness for  battle.  Some  of  the  high-spirited  Russians,  among  them  Prince 
Bagration,  were  as  eager,  but  as  yet  the  prudent  policy  of  Barclay  de  Tolly 
prevailed. 

On  the   1 4th  of  August,  the  army  crossed  the  Dnieper,  and  marched, 
now  175,000  strong,  upon  Smolensk,  which  was  reached  on  the  i6th.     This 
ancient  and  venerable   town  was  dear  to  the  Russians,  and    Smolensk  Cap- 
they  made  their  first  determined  stand  in  its  defence,  fighting      tured  and  in 
behind  its  walls  all  day  of  the  i;th.     Finding  that  the  assault      Flames 
was  likely  to   succeed,   they  set  fire  to  the  town  at  night  and  withdrew, 
leaving  to  the  French  a  city  in  flames.     The  bridge  was  cut,  the  Russian 
army  was  beyond  pursuit  on  the  road  to  Moscow,  nothing  had  been  gained 
by  the  struggle  but  the  ruins  of  a  town. 

The  situation  was  growing  desperate.  For  two  months  the  army  had 
advanced  without  a  battle  of  importance,  and  was  soon  in  the  heart  of 
Russia,  reduced  to.  half  its  numbers,  while  the  hoped-for  victory  seemed 
as  far  off  as  ever.  And  the  short  summer  of  the  north  was  nearing  its  end. 


88  THE  DECLINE  AND  FALL  OF  NAPOLEON'S  EMPIRE 

The  severe  winter  of  that  climate  would  soon  begin.  Discouragement 
everywhere  prevailed.  Efforts  were  made  by  Napoleon's  marshals  to 
induce  him  to  give  up  the  losing  game  and  retreat,  but  he  was  not  to  be 
moved  from  his  purpose.  A  march  on  Moscow,  the  old  capital  of  the 
empire,  he  felt  sure  would  bring  the  Russians  to  bay.  Once  within  its 
walls  he  hoped  to  dictate  terms  of  peace. 

Napoleon  was  soon  to  have  the  battle  for  which  his  soul  craved.  Bar- 
clay's prudent  and  successful  policy  was  not  to  the  taste  of  many  of  the 
Russian  leaders,  and  the  czar  was  at  length  induced  to  replace  him  by  fiery 
old  Kutusoff,  who  had  commanded  the  Russians  at  Austerlitz.  A  change 
in  the  situation  was  soon  apparent.  On  the  5th  of  September  the  French 
army  debouched  upon  the  plain  of  Borodino,  on  the  road  to  Moscow,  and 
the  emperor  saw  with  joy  the  Russian  army  drawn  up  to  dispute  the  way 
to  the  "  Holy  City  "  of  the  Muscovites.  The  dark  columns  of  troops  were 
strongly  intrenched  behind  a  small  stream,  frowning  rows  of  guns  threat- 
ened the  advancing  foe,  and  hope  returned  to  the  emperor's  heart. 

Battle  began   early   on   the    7th,   and    continued  all   day 

long,  the  Russians   defending   their  ground  with    unyielding 

stubborness,    the    French   attacking    their   positions  with  all 

their  old  impetuous  dash  and  energy.     Murat  and  Ney  were  the  heroes  of 

the  day.     Again  and  again  the  emperor  was  implored  to  send  the  imperial 

guard  and  overwhelm  the  foe,  but  he  persistently  refused.     "  If  there  is  a 

second  battle  to-morrow,"  he  said,  "what  troops  shall  I  fight  it  with?     It  is 

not  when  one  is  eight  hundred  leagues  from  home  that  he  risks  his  last 

resource." 

The  guard  was  not  needed.  On  the  following  day  Kutusoff  was  obliged 
to  withdraw,  leaving  no  less  than  40,000  dead  or  wounded  on  the  field. 
Among  the  killed  was  the  brave  Prince  Bagration.  The  retreat  was  an 
orderly  one.  Napoleon  found  it  expedient  not  to  pursue.  His  own  losses 
aggregated  over  30,000,  among  them  an  unusual  number  of  generals,  of 
whom  ten  were  killed  and  thirty-nine  wounded.  Three  days  proved  a  brief 
time  to  attend  to  the  burial  of  the  dead  and  the  needs  of  the  wounded. 
Napoleon  named  the  engagement  the  Battle  of  the  Moskwa,  from  the  river 
that  crossed  the  plain,  and  honored  Ney,  as  the  hero  of  the  day,  with  tb.e 
title  of  Prince  of  Moskwa. 

The  First  sight  ^n  t^le    I5t^1  t^e   Holy  City  was   reached.     A  shout  of 

of  the  Holy       "  Moscow  !  Moscow  ! "  went  up  from  the  whole  army  as  they 

gazed  on  the  gilded  cupolas  and  magnificent  buildings  of  that 

famous  city,  brilliantly  lit  up  by  the  afternoon  sun.      Twenty 

miles  in  circumference,  dazzling  with  the  green  of  its  copper  domes  and 


03 


5lj? 

o  TTT,* 


i 


s-s 


DECLINE  AND  FALL  OF  NAPOLEON'S  EMPIRE  9t 

its  minarets  of  yellow  stone,  the  towers  and  walls  of  the  famous  Kremlin 
rising-  above  its  palaces  and  gardens,  it  seemed  like  some  fabled  city  of  the 
Arabian  Nights.  With  renewed  enthusiasm  the  troops  rushed  towards  it. 
while  whole  regiments  of  Poles  fell  on  their  knees,  thanking  God  for  deliver- 
ing this  stronghold  of  their  oppressors  into  their  hands. 

It   was   an    empty  city  into    which    the   French    marched ;    its  streets 
deserted,  its  dwellings   silent,      Its  busy  life   had   vanished  like  a  morning 
mist      Kutusoff  had  marched  his  army  through  it  and  left  it 
to  his  foes.     The  inhabitants  were  gone,  with  what  they  could       Army  in  the 
carry  of  their  treasures.     The  city,  like   the   empire,  seemed      old  Russian 
likely  to  be  a  barren   conquest,   for  here,  as  elsewhere,    the 
policy  of  retreat,  so   fatal  to  Napoleon's   hopes,  was  put  into  effect.     The 
emperor  took  up  his  abode  in  the  Kremlin,  within  whose  ample  precincts  he 
found  quarters  for  the  whole  imperial  guard.     The  remainder  of  the  army 
was  stationed  at  chosen  points  about   the  city.      Provisions  were   abundant, 
the  houses  and  stores  of  the  city  being  amply  supplied.     The  army  enjoyed 
a  luxury  of  which  it  had  been  long  deprived,  while  Napoleon  confidently 
awaited  a  triumphant  result  from  his  victorious  progress. 

A  terrible  disenchantment  awaited  the  invader.      Early  on  the  following 
morning  word  was  brought   him   that  Moscow  was  on  fire.     Flames  arose 
from  houses  that  had  not  been  opened.      It  was  evidently  a  premeditated 
conflagration.     The  fire  burst  out  at  once  in  a  dozen   quarters,  and  a  high 
wind  carried  the  flames  from  street  to   street,  from  house  to  house,  from 
church  to  church.     Russians  were  captured  who  boasted  that  they  had  fired 
the  town  under  orders  and  who  met  death  unflinchingly.     The   The  Burnin   of 
governor  had    left  them   behind  for  this  fell   purpose.     The      the  Great 
poorer  people,  many  of  whom  had  remained  hidden  in  their      City  of 
huts,  now  fled    in    terror,   taking  with   them  what  cherished 
possessions  they  could  carry.     Soon  the  city  was  a  seething  mass  of  flames. 

The  Kremlin  did  not  escape.  A  tower  burst  into  flames.  In  vain  the 
imperial  guard  sought  to  check  the  fire.  No  fire-engines  were  to  be  found 
in  the  town.  Napoleon  hastily  left  the  palace  and  sought  shelter  outside 
the  city,  where  for  three  days  the  flames  ran  riot,  feeding  on  ancient  palaces 
and  destroying  untold  treasures.  Then  the  wind  sank  and  rain  poured  upon 
the  smouldering  embers.  The  great  city  had  become  a  desolate  heap  of 
smoking  ruins,  into  which  the  soldiers  daringly  stole  back  in  search  of 
valuables  that  might  have  escaped  the  flames. 

This  frightful  conflagration  was  not  due  to  the  czar,  but  to  Count 
Rostopchin,  the  governor  of  Moscow,  who  was  subsequently  driven  from 
Russia  by  the  execrations  of  those  he  had  ruined.  But  it  served  as  a  procla- 


92  THE  DECLINE  AND  FALL  OF  NAPOLEON'S  EMPIRE 

mation   to  Europe   of    the    implacable    resolution    of    the  Muscovites    and 
their  determination  to  resist  to  the  bitter  end. 

Napoleon,  sadly  troubled  in  soul,  sent  letters  to  Alexander,  suggesting 
the  advisability  of  peace.  Alexander  left  his  letters  unanswered.  Until 
October  i8th  the  emperor  waited,  hoping  against  hope,  willing  to  grant 
almost  any  terms  for  an  opportunity  to  escape  from  ;he  fatal  trap  into  which 
his  overweening  ambition  had  led  him.  No  answer  came  from  the  czar. 
He  was  inflexible  in  his  determination  not  to  treat -with  these  invaders  of 
his  country.  In  deep  dejection  Napoleon  at  length  gave  the  order  to 
retreat — too  late,  as  it  was  to  prove,  since  the  terrible  Russian  winter  was 
ready  to  descend  upon  them  in  all  its  frightful  strength. 

The  army  that  left  that  ruined  city  was  a  sadly  depleted  one.  It  had 
The  Grand  been  reduced  to  103,00x3  men.  The  army  followers  had  also 

Army  Begins  become  greatly  decreased  in  numbers,  but  still  formed  a  host, 
among  them  delicate  ladies,  thinly  clad,  who  gazed  with  terri- 
fied eyes  from  their  traveling  carriages  upon  the  dejected  troops.  Articles 
of  plunder  of  all  kinds  were  carried  by  the  soldiers,  even  the  wounded  in  the 
wagons  lying  amid  the  spoil  they  had  gathered.  The  Kremlin  was  destroyed 
by  the  rear  guard,  under  Napoleon's  orders,  and  over  the  drear  Russian 
plains  the  retreat  began. 

It  was  no  sooner  under  way  than  the  Russian  policy  changed.  From 
retreating,  they  everywhere  advanced,  seeking  to  annoy  and  cut  off  the 
enemy,  and  utterly  to  destroy  the  fugitive  army  if  possible.  A  stand  was 
made  at  the  town  of  Maloi-Yaroslavitz,  where  a  sanguinary  combat  took 
place.  The  French  captured  the  town,  but  ten  thousand  men  lay  dead  or 
wounded  on  the  field,  while  Napoleon  was  forced  to  abandon  his  projected 
line  of  march,  and  to  return  by  the  route  he  had  followed  in  his  advance 
on  Moscow.  From  the  bloody  scene  of  contest  the  retreat  continued,  the 
battlefield  of  Borodino  being  crossed,  and,  by  the  middle  of  November,  the 
ruins  of  Smolensk  reached. 

•    Winter  was  now  upon  the  French  in  all  its  fury.      The  food  brought 

from  Moscow  had  been  exhausted.     Famine,  frost,  and  fatigue  had  proved 

more  fatal  than  the  bullets  of  the  enemy.      In  fourteen  days  after  reaching 

The  Sad  Rem-      Moscow  the  army  lost  43,000  men,  leaving  it  only  60,000  strong. 

nant  of  the       On   reaching  Smolensk  it  numbered  but  42,000,  having  lost 

Army  of  i8,ooo  more  within  eiofht  days.     The  unarmed  followers  are 

Invasion 

said  to  have  still  numbered  60,000.  Worse  still,  the  supply 
of  arms  and  provisions  ordered  to  be  ready  at  Smolensk  was  in  great  part 
lacking,  only  rye-flour  and  rice  being  found.  Starvation  threatened  to  aid  the 
winter  cold  in  the  destruction  of  the  feeble  remnant  of  the  "  Grand  Army." 


THE  DECLINE  AND  FALL  OF  NAPOLEON'S  EMPIRE  93 

Onward  went  the  despairing  host,  at  every  step  harassed  by  the  Russians, 
who  followed  like  wolves  on  their  path.  Ney,  in  command  of  the  rear- 
guard, was  the  hero  of  the  retreat.  Cut  off  by  the  Russians  from  the  main 
column,  and  apparently  lost  beyond  hope,  he  made  a  wonderful  escape  by 
crossing  the  Dnieper  on  the  ice  during  the  night  and  rejoining  his  compan- 
ions, who  had  given  up  the  hope  of  ever  seeing  him  again. 

On  the  26th  the  ice-cold  river  Beresina  was  reached,  destined  to  be  the 
most  terrible  point  on  the  whole  dreadful  march.  Two  bridges   The  rjreadfu| 
were  thrown  in  all  haste   across  the   stream,  and  most  of  the      Crossing  of 
men  under  arms  crossed,  but  18,000  stragglers  fell  into   the      the  Beresina 

£>£> 

hands  of  the  enemy.  How  many  were  trodden  to  death  in  the  press  or  were 
crowded  from  the  bridge  into  the  icy  river  cannot  be  told.  It  is  said  that 
when  spring  thawed  the  ice  30,000  bodies  were  found  and  burned  on  the 
banks  of  the  stream.  A  mere  fragment  of  the  great  army  remained  alive. 
Ney  was  the  last  man  to  cross  that  frightful  stream. 

On  the  3d  of  December  Napoleon  issued  a  bulletin  which  has  become 
famous,  telling  the  anxious  nations  of  Europe  that  the  grand  army  was  anni- 
hilated, but  the  emperor  was  safe.  Two  days  afterwards  he  surrendered  the 
command  of  the  army  to  Murat  and  set  out  at  all  speed  for  Paris,  where 
his  presence  was  indispensibly  necessary.  On  the  I3th  of  December  some 
16,000  haggard  and  staggering  men,  almost  too  weak  to  hold  the  arms  to 
which  they  still  despairingly  clung,  recrossed  the  Niemen,  which  the  grand 
army  had  passed  in  such  magnificent  strength  and  with  such  abounding 
resources  less  than  six  months  before.  It  was  the  greatest  and  most  astound- 
ing disaster  in  the  military  history  of  the  world. 

This  tale  of  terror  may  be  fitly  closed  by  a  dramatic  story  told  by 
General  Mathieu  Dumas,  who,  while  sitting  at  breakfast  in  Gumbinnen, 
saw  enter  a  haggard  man,  with  long  beard,  blackened  face,  and  red  and 
glaring  eyes. 

"  I  am  here  at  last,"  he  exclaimed.     "  Don't  you  know  me?" 

"  No,"  said  the  general.     "Who  are  you?" 

"  I  am  the  rear-guard  of  the  Grand  Army.  I  have  fired  the  last  musket- 
shot  on  the  bridge  of  Kowno.  I  have  thrown  the  last  of  our  arms  into  the 
Niemen,  and  came  hither  through  the  woods.  I  am  Marshal  Ney." 

"  This  is  the  beginning  of  the  end,"  said  the  shrewd  Talleyrand,  when 
Napoleon  set  out  on  his  Russian  campaign.  The  remark  proved  true,  the 
disaster  in  Russia  had  loosened  the  grasp  of  the  Corsican  on  the  throat  of 
Europe,  and  the  nations,  which  hated  as  much  as  they  feared  their  ruthless 
enemy,  made  active  preparations  for  his  overthrow.  While  he  was  in 
France,  actively  gathering  men  and  materials  for  a  renewed  struggle,  signs 


04  THE  DECLINE  AND  FALL  OP  NAPOLEON'S  EMPIRE 

of  an  implacable  hostility  began  to  manifest  themselves  on  all  sides  in  the 
surrounding  states.      Belief  in  the  invincibility  of  Napoleon   had  vanished, 
and  little  fear  was  entertained  of  the  raw  conscripts  whom  he  was  forcing 
Europe  in  Arms  mto  t^ie  ran^s  to  replace  his  slaughtered  veterans. 
Against  Prussia  was  the  first  to  break  the  bonds  of  alliance  with 

Napoleon  France,  to  ally  itself  with  Russia,  and  to  call  its  people  to 
arms  against  their  oppressor.  They  responded  with  the  utmost  enthusiasm, 
men  of  all  ranks  and  all  professions  hastened  to  their  country's  defence,  and 
the  noble  and  the  peasant  stood  side  by  side  as  privates  in  the  same  regi- 
ment. In  March,  1813,  the  French  left  Berlin,  which  was  immediately 
occupied  by  the  Russian  and  Prussian  allies.  The  king  of  Saxony,  how- 
ever, refused  to  desert  Napoleon,  to  whom  he  owed  many  favors  and 
whose  anger  he  feared  ;  and  his  State,  in  consequence,  became  the  theatre 
of  the  war. 

Across  the  opposite  borders  of  this  kingdom  poured  the  hostile  hosts, 

The  Opening        meeting  in  battle  at  Liitzen  and  Buntzen.      Here  the  French 

of  the  held  the  field,  driving  their  adversaries  across  the  Oder,  but 

Final  struggle  not  jn  tjlg  wjj^  Dismay  seen  at  Jena.     A  new  spirit  had  been 

aroused  in  the  Prussian  heart,  and  they  left  thousands  of  their  enemies 
dead  upon  the  field,  among  whom  Napoleon  saw  with  grief  his  especial 
friend  and  favorite  Duroc. 

A  truce  followed,  which  the  French  emperor  utilized  in  gathering  fresh 
levies.  Prince  Metternich,  the  able  chancellor  of  the  Austrian  empire, 
sought  to  make  peace,  but  his  demands  upon  Napoleon  were  much  greater 
than  the  proud  conqueror  was  prepared  to  grant,  and  he  decisively  refused 
to  cede  the  territory  held  by  him  as  the  spoils  of  war.  His  refusal  brought 
upon  him  another  powerful  foe,  Austria  allied  itself  with  his  enemies, 
formally  declaring  war  on  August  12,  1813,  and  an  active  and  terrible 
struggle  began. 

Napoleon's   army  was    rapidly   concentrated   at  Dresden,  upon   whose 
The  Battle  of      wor^s  of  defence  the  allied  army  precipitated  itself  in  a  vigor- 
Dresden,  Na-    ous  assault  on  August  26th.      Its  strength  was  wasted  against 

poleon's  Last    the  vigorously  held  fortifications  of  the  city,  and  in  the  end 
Great  Victory      .  n  .      ,  .     ,    ,  ..  ,     . 

the  gates  were  rlung  open  and  the  serried  battalions  of  the 
Old  Guard  appeared  in  battle  array.  From  every  gate  of  the  city  these 
tried  soldiers  poured,  and  rushed  upon  the. unprepared  wings  of  the  hostile 
host.  Before  this  resistless  charge  the  enemy  recoiled,  retreating  with  heavy 
loss  to  the  heights  beyond  the  city,  and  leaving  Napoleon  master  of  the  field. 
On  the  next  morning  the  battle  was  resumed.  The  allies,  strongly 
posted,  still  outnumbered  the  French,  and  had  abundant  reason  to  expect 


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THE  DECLINE  AND  FALL  OF  NAPOLEON'S  EMPIRE  95 

victory.  But  Napoleon's  eagle  eye  quickly  saw  that  their  left  wing  lacked 
the  strength  of  the  remainder  of  the  line,  and  upon  this  he  poured  the  bulk 
of  his  forces,  while  keeping  their  centre  and  right  actively  engaged.  The 
result  justified  the  instinct  of  his  genius,  the  enemy  was  driven  back  in 
disastrous  defeat,  and  once  again  a  glorious  victory  was  inscribed  upon  the 
banners  of  France — the  final  one  in  Napoleon's  career  of  fame. 

Yet  the  fruits  of  this  victory  were  largely  lost  in  the  events  of   the 
remainder  of  the  month.     On  the  26th  Blucher  brilliantly  defeated  Marshal 
Macdonald  on  the  Katzbach,  in  Silesia ;  on  the  3Oth  General    A  Serjes  Of 
Vandamme,  with  10,000  French  soldiers,  was  surrounded  and      French 
captured  at  Culm,  in  Bohemia;  and  on  the  2;th  Hirschfeld,  at 
Hagelsberg,  with  a  corps  of  volunteers,  defeated  Girard.     The   Prussian- 
Swedish  army  similarly  won  victories  on  August  25th  and  September  6th, 
and  a  few  weeks  afterward  the  Prussian  general,  Count  York,  supported  by 
the  troops  of  General  Horn,  crossed  the  Elbe  in  the  face  of  the  enemy, 
and    gained   a   brilliant    victory   at    Wartenburg.     Where    Napoleon    was 
present  victory  inclined  to  his  banner.     Where  he  was  absent  his  lieute- 
nants suffered  defeat.     The  struggle  was  everywhere  fierce  and  desperate, 
but  the  end  was  at  hand. 

The  rulers  of  the  Rhine  Confederation  now  began  to  desert  Napoleon 
and  all  Germany  to  join    against    him.     The  first  to  secede  was  Bavaria, 
which  allied  itself  with  Austria  and  joined  its  forces  to  those  of  the  allies. 
During  October  the  hostile  armies  concentrated  in   front  of 
Leipzig,  where  was  to  be  fought  the  decisive  battle  of  the  war.       Meeting  of 
The  struggle  promised  was  the  most  gigantic  one  in  which      the  Armies 

TVT         i  u    j  u  j         A        •          u  •  at  Le'PZ'g 

Napoleon  had  ever  been  engaged.     Against  his  100,000  men 

was  gathered    a    host    of    300,000    Austrians,     Prussians,     Russians,    and 

Swedes. 

We  have  not  space  to  describe  the  multitudinous  details  of  this  mighty 
struggle,  which  continued  with  unabated  fury  for  three  days,  October  i6th, 
1 7th,  and  i8th.  It  need  scarcely  be  said  that  the  generalship  shown  by  Na- 
poleon in  this  famous  contest  lacked  nothing  of  his  usual  brilliancy,  and 
that  he  was  ably  seconded  by  Ney,  Murat,  Augereau,  and  others  of  his 
famous  generals,  yet  the  overwhelming  numbers  of  the  enemy  enabled  them 
to  defy  all  the  valor  of  the  French  and  the  resources  of  their  great  leader, 
and  at  evening  pf  the  i8th  the  armies  still  faced  each  other  in  battle  array, 
the  fate  of  the  field  yet  undecided. 

Napoleon  was  in  no  condition  to  renew  the  combat.  During  the  long 
affray  the  French  had  expended  no  less  than  250,000  cannon  balls.  They  had 
but  16,000  left,  which  two  hours'  firing  would  exhaust.  Reluctantly  he  gave 

6 


96  THE  DECLINE  AND  FALL  OF  NAPOLEON'S  EMPIRE 

the  order  to  retreat,  and  all  that  night  the  wearied  and  disheartened  troops 
filed  through  the  gates  of  Leipzig,  leaving  a  rear-guard  in.  the  city,  who  de- 
fended it  bravely  against  the  swarming  multitude  of  the  foe.  A  disastrous 
blunder  terminated  their  stubborn  defence.  Orders  had  been  left  to  blow  up 
the  bridge  across  the  Elster,  but  the  mine  was,  by  mistake,  set  off  too  soon, 
and  the  gallant  garrison,  12,000  in  number,  with  a  multitude  of  sick  and 
wounded,  was  forced  to  surrender  as  prisoners  of  war. 

The  end  was  drawing  near.  Vigorously  pursued,  the  French  reached 
the  Rhine  by  forced  marches,  defeating  with  heavy  loss  the  army  of  Austri- 
ans  and  Bavarians  which  sought  to  block  their  way.  The  stream  was  crossed 
and  the  French  were  once  more  upon  their  own  soil.  After  years  of  contest, 
Germany  was  finally  freed  from  Napoleon's  long-victorious  hosts. 

Marked  results  followed.  The  carefully  organized  work  of  Napoleon's 
policy  quickly  fell  to  pieces.  The  kingdom  of  Westphalia  was  dissolved. 
The  Break  u  ^e  elector  of  Hesse  and  the  dukes  of  Brunswick  and  Olden- 
of  Napoleon's  burg  returned  to  the  thrones  from  which  they  had  been  driven. 
European  T\\e  Confederation  of  the  Rhine  ceased  to  exist,  and  its  states 
allied  themselves  with  Austria.  Denmark,  Ir^ng  faithful  to 
France,  renounced  its  alliance  in  January,  1814.  Austria  regained  posses- 
sion of  Lombardy,  the  duke  of  Tuscany  returned  to  his  capital,  and  the 
Pope,  Pius  VII.,  long  held  captive  by  Napoleon,  came  back  in  triumph  to 
Rome.  A  few  months  sufficed  to  break  down  the  edifice  of  empire  slowly 
reared  through  so  many  years,  and  almost  all  Europe  outside  ov  France 
united  itself  in  hostility  to  its  hated  foe. 

Napoleon  was  offered  peace  if  he  would  accept  the  Rhine  as  the  French 
frontier,  but  his  old  infatuation  and  trust  in  his  genius  prevailed  over  the  dic- 
tates of  prudence,  he  treated  the  offer  in  his  usual  double-dealing  way,  and 
the  allies,  convinced  that  there  could  be  no  stable  peace  while  he  remained 
on  the  throne,  decided  to  cross  the  Rhine  and  invade  France. 

Bliicher  led  his  columns  across  the  stream  on  the  first  day  of  1814, 
Schwarzenberg  marched  through  Switzerland  into  France,  and  Wellington 

crossed  the  Pyrenees.     Napoleon,  like  a  wolf  brought  to  bay. 
The  War  in  . .     J  e  .  .  .'  .  ' 

France  and        sought  to  dispose  of  his  scattered  foes  before  they  would  unite, 

the  Abdica-      and  began  with  Bliicher,  whom  he  defeated  five  times  within 

Emperor*          as    many    day5'        The    allies>    Sti11     in    dread    °f    their    Sreat 
opponent,    once    more    offered    him    peace,    but    his    success 

robbed  him  of  wisdom,  he  demanded  more  than  they  were  willing  to  give, 
and  his  enemies,  encouraged  by  a  success  gained  by  Bliicher,  broke  off  the 
negotiations  and  marched  on  Paris,  now  bent  on  the  dethronement  of  their 
dreaded  antagonist. 


THE  FALL  AND  DECLINE  OF  NAPOLEON'S  EMPIRE  97 

A  few  words  will  bring  the  story  of  this  contest  to  an  end.  France 
was  exhausted,  its  army  was  incapable  of  coping  with  the  serried  battalions 
marshalled  against  it,  Paris  surrendered  before  Napoleon  could  come  to  its 
defence,  and  in  the  end  the  emperor,  vacillating  and  in  despair,  was  obliged, 
on  April  7,  1814,  to  sign  an  unconditional  act  of  abdication.  The  powers  of 
Europe  awarded  him  as  a  kingdom  the  diminutive  island  of  Elba,  in  the 
Mediterranean,  with  an  annual  income  of  2,000,000  francs  and  an  army 
composed  of  400  of  his  famous  guard.  The  next  heir  to  the  throne, 
returned  as  Louis  XVIII.  France  was  given  back  its  old  frontier  of  1492, 
the  foreign  armies  withdrew  from  her  soil,  and  the  career  of  the  great 
Corsican  seemed  at  an  end. 

In  spite  of  their  long  experience  with  Napoleon,  the  event  proved  that 
the  powers  of  Europe  knew  not  all  the  audacity  and  mental  resources  of  the 
man  with  whom  they  had  to  deal.  They  had  made  what  might  have  proved 
a  fatal  error  in  giving  him  an  asylum  so  near  the  coast  of  France,  whose 
people,  intoxicated  with  the  dream  of  glory  through  which  he  had  so  long 
led  them,  would  be  sure  to  respond  enthusiastically  to  an  appeal  to  rally  to 
his  support. 

The  powers  were  soon   to  learn  their  error.     While  the  Congress  of 
Vienna,  convened  to  restore  the  old  constitution  of  Europe,  was  deliber- 
ating and  disputing,  its  members  were  startled  by  the  news  that  the  de- 
throned emperor  was  again  upon  the  soil  of  France,  and  that    Napoleon 
Louis  XVIII.  was  in  full   flight  for  the  frontier.      Napoleon       Returns 
had  landed  on  March   i,  1815,  and  set  out  on  his  return  to      from  Elba 
Paris,  the  army  and  the  people  rapidly  gathering  to  his  support.     On  the 
3Oth  he  entered  the  Tuileries  in  a  olaze  of  triumph,  the  citizens,  thoroughly 
dissatisfied  with  their  brief  experience  of  Bourbon   rule,  going  mad  with 
enthusiasm  in  his  welcome. 

Thus  began  the  famous  period  of  the  "  Hundred  Days."  The  powers 
declared  Napoleon  to  be  the  "  enemy  of  nations,"  and  armed  a  half  million 
of  men  for  his  final  overthrow.  The  fate  of  his  desperate  attempt  was 
soon  decided.  For  the  first  time  he  was  to  meet  the  British  in  battle,  and 
in  Wellington  to  encounter  the  only  man  who  had  definitely  made  head 
against  his  legions.  A  British  army  was  dispatched  in  all  haste  to  Belgium, 
Bllicher  with  his  Prussians  hastened  to  the  same  region,  and  the  mighty 
final  struggle  was  at  hand.  The  persistent  and  unrelenting  enemies  of  the 
Corsican  conqueror,  the  British  islanders,  were  destined  to  be  the  agents  of 
his  overthrow. 

The  little  kingdom  of  Belgium  was  the  scene  of  the  momentous  contest 
that  brought  Napoleon's  marvelous  career  to  an  end.  Thither  he  led  his 


98  THE  DECLINE  AND  FALL  OF  NAPOLEON'S  EMPIRE 

army,  largely  made  up  of  new  conscripts ;  and  thither  the  English  and  the 
Prussians  hastened  to   meet  him.     On  June   16,  1815,  the  prelude  to   the 
The  Gathering     great  battle  took  place.      Napoleon  met  Blucher  at  Ligny  and 
of  the  Armies    defeated  him;  then,  leaving  Grouchy  to  pursue  the  Prussians, 
in  Belgium        ^e  turne(j  against  his  island  foes.     On  the  same  day  Ney  en- 
countered the  forces  of  Wellington  at  Quatre  Bras,  but  failed  to  drive  them 
back.    On  the  iyth  Wellington  took  a  new  position  at  Waterloo,  and  awaited 
there  his  great  antagonist. 

June  1 8th  was  the  crucial  day  in  Napoleon's  career,  the  one  in  which 
his  power  was  to  fall,  never  to  rise  again.  Here  we  shall  but  sketch  in  out- 
line this  famous  battle,  reserving  a  fuller  account  of  it  for  our  next  chapter, 
The  Terrible  under  the  story  of  Wellington,  the  victor  in  the  fray.  The 
Defeat  at  •  stupendous  struggle,  as  Wellington  himself  described  it, 
was  "a  battle  of  giants."  Long  the  result  wavered  in  the 
balance.  All  day  long  the  British  sustained  the  desperate  assaults  of  their 
antagonists.  Terrible  was  the  contest,  frightful  the  loss  of  life.  Hour 
after  hour  passed,  charge  after  charge  was  hurled  by  Napoleon  against  the 
British  lines,  which  still  closed  up  over  the  dead  and  stood  firm  ;  and  it 
seemed  as  if  night  would  fall  with  the  two  armies  unflinchingly  face  to  face, 
neither  of  them  victor  in  the  terrible  fray. 

The  arrival  of  Blucher  with  his  Prussians  turned  the  scale.  To  Napo- 
leon's bitter  disappointment  Grouchy,  who  should  have  been  close  on  the 
heels  of  the  Prussians,  failed  to  appear,  and  the  weary  and  dejected  French 
were  left  to  face  these  fresh  troops  without  support.  Napoleon's  Old  Guard 
in  vain  flung  itself  into  the  gap,  and  the  French  nation  long  repeated  in 
pride  the  saying  attributed  to  the  commander  of  this  famous  corps : 
"  The  guard  dies,  but  it  never  surrenders." 

In  the  end  the  French  army  broke  and  fled  in  disastrous  rout,  three- 
fourths  of  the  whole  force  being  left  dead,  wounded,  or  prisoners,  while  all 
its  artillery  became  the  prize  of  the  victors.  Napoleon,  pale  and  confused, 
was  led  by  Soult  from  the  battlefield.  It  was  his  last  fight. 
His  abdication  was  demanded,  and  he  resigned  the  crown  in 
favor  of  his  son.  A  hopeless  and  unnerved  fugitive,  he  fled 
from  Paris  to  Rochefort,  hoping  to  escape  to  America.  But  the  British  fleet 
held  that  port,  and  in  despair  he  went  on  board  a  vessel  of  the  fleet,  trusting 
himself  to  the  honor  of  the  British  nation.  But  the  statesmen  of  England 
had  no  sympathy  with  the  vanquished  adventurer,  from  whose  ambition 
Europe  had  suffered  so  terribly.  He  was  sent  as  a  state  prisoner  to  the 
island  of  St.  Helena,  there  to  end  his  days.  His  final  hour  of  glory  came 
in  1842,  when  his  ashes  were  brought  in  pomp  and  display  to  Paris. 


li 

n 

2.E 
g1? 

i 

fr 


a, 

iTjT 


! 

-so 
It 

3  o 
II 


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Si 

= 


-     -  -- 


WELLINGTON    AT  WATERLOO   GIVING   THE   WORD  TO   ADVANCE 

This  spirited  illustration  figures  the  final  event  in  the  mighty  struggle  at  Waterloo,  when  the  French,  after  hurling  themsel 
times  against  the  unyielding  British  ranks,  like  storm  waves  up 


inst  te  unyieding  British  r 
the  magic  word  of  comman 


k-bound  shore,  staggered  back  in  despair,  and  Weliingt 
fied  the   " 


Those  words  sign 


downfall  of  Napoleon 


CHAPTER  V. 
Nelson  and  Wellington,  the  Champions  of  England. 

FOR    nearly  twenty   years   went    on  the   stupendous   struggle   between 
Napoleon  the  Great  and  the  powers  of  Europe,  but  in   all   that  time, 

and  among  the  multitude  of  men  who  met  the  forces  of  France  in 
battle,  only  two  names  emerge  which  the  world  cares  to  remember,  those 
of  Horatio  Nelson,  the  most  famous  of  the  admirals  of  England,  and  Lord 
Wellington,  who  alone  seemed  able  to  overthrow  the  greatest  military 
genius  of  modern  times.  On  land  the  efforts  of  Napoleon  were  seconded 
by  the  intrepidity  of  a  galaxy  of  heroes,  Ney,  Murat,  Moreau,  Massena,  and 
other  men  of  fame.  At  sea  the  story  reads  differently.  That  era  of  stress 
and  strain  raised  no  great  admiral  in  the  service  of  France  ;  England  and 
her  ships  were  feebly  commanded,  and  the  fleet  of  Great  France  on 
Britain,  under  the  daring  Nelson,  kept  its  proud  place  as  Land  and  Sea 
mistress  of  the  sea. 

The  first  proof  of  this  came  before  the  opening  of  the  century,  when 
Napoleon,  led  by  the  ardor  of  his   ambition,  landed   in  Egypt,  with  vague 
hopes   of    rivaling    in   the   East   the   far-famed  exploits   of    Alexander  the 
Great.      The  fleet  which  bore  him  thither  remained  moored 
in  Aboukir  Bay,  where  Nelson,  scouring  the  Mediterranean  in      COVers  the 
quest  of  it,  first  came  in  sight  of  its   serried   line  of  ships  on       French  Fleet 
August    i,    1798.      One  alternative  alone   dwelt  in  his  cour-       ^Aboukir 
ageous    soul,   that    of    a    heroic   death  or  a  glorious  victory. 
"  Before  this  time  to-morrow  I  shall  have  gained  a  victory  or  Westminster 
Abbey,"  he  said. 

In  the  mighty  contest  that  followed,  the  French  had  the  advantage  in 
numbers,  alike  of  ships,  guns,  and  men.  They  were  drawn  up  in  a  strong  and 
compact  line  of  battle,  moored  in  a  manner  that  promised  to  bid  defiance  to 
a  force  double  their  own.  They  lay  in  an  open  roadstead,  but  had  every 
advantage  of  situation,  the  British  fleet  being  obliged  to  attack  them  in  a 
position  carefully  chosen  for  defence.  Only  the  genius  of  Nelson  enabled  him 
to  overcome  those  advantages  of  the  enemy.  "If  we  succeed,  what  will  the 
world  say  ?"  asked  Captain  Berry,  on  hearing  the  admiral's  plan  of  battle. 
"  There  is  no  if  in  the  case,"  answered  the  admiral.  "  That  we  shall  succeed 
is  certain  :  who  may  live  to  tell  the  story,  is  a  very  different  question." 


102     NELSON  AND   WELLINGTON,  THE  CHAMPIONS  OF  ENGLAND 

The   story  of   the   "  Battle  of    the    Nile "   belongs  to    the    record    of 
The  Glorious       eighteenth   century  affairs.      All  we   need   say  here  is  that  it 
Battle  of  the     ended  in  a  glorious  victory  for  the  English  fleet.     Of  thirteen 
Nile-  ships  of  the  line  in   the  French   fleet,  only  two  escaped.     Of 

four  frigates,  one  was  sunk  and  one  burned.  The  British  loss  was  895  men 
Of  the  French,  5,225  perished  in  the  terrible  fray.  Nelson  sprang,  in  a 
moment,  from  the  position  of  a  man  without  fame  into  that  of  the  naval 
hero  of  the  world — as  Dewey  did  in  as  famous  a  fray  almost  exactly  a  century 
later.  Congratulations  and  honors  were  showered  upon  him,  the  Sultan  of 
Turkey  rewarded  him  with  costly  presents,  valuable  testimonials  came  from 
other  quarters,  and  his  own  country  honored  him  with  the  title  of  Baron 
Nelson  of  the  Nile,  and  settled  upon  him  for  life  a  pension  of  ,£2,000. 

The  first  great  achievement  of  Nelson  in  the  nineteenth  century  was 
the  result  of  a  daring  resolution  of  the  statesmen  of  England,  in  their 
desperate  contest  with  the  Corsican  conqueror.  By  his  exploit  at  the  Nile 
the  admiral  had  very  seriously  weakened  the  sea-power  of  France.  But 
there  were  powers  then  in  alliance  with  France — Russia,  Sweden  and  Den- 
mark— which  had  formed  a  confederacy  to  make  England  respect  their 
naval  rights,  and  whose  combined  fleet,  if  it  should  come  to  the  aid  ol 
France,  might  prove  sufficient  to  sweep  the  ships  of  England  from  the  seas. 
The  weakest  of  these  powers,  and  the  one  most  firmly  allied  to  France, 
was  Denmark,  whose  fleet,  consisting  of  twenty-three  ships  of  the  line  and 
about  thirty-one  frigates  and  smaller  vessels,  lay  at  Copenhagen.  At  any 
moment  this  powerful  fleet  might  be  put  at  the  disposal  of  Napoleon.  This 
possible  danger  the  British  cabinet  resolved  to  avoid.  A  plan  was  laid  to 
destroy  the  fleet  of  the  Danes,  and  on  the  i2th  of  March,  1801,  the  British 
fleet  sailed  with  the  purpose  of  putting  this  resolution  into  effect. 
The  Fleet  Nelson,  then  bearing  the  rank  of  vice-admiral,  went  with 

Sails  for  the  fleet,   but  only  as  second  in   command.     To  the  disgust 

Copenhagen  of  the  English  peopie>  Sir  Hyde  Parker,  a  brave  and  able 
seaman,  but  one  whose  name  history  has  let  sink  into  oblivion,  was  given 
chief  command — a  fact  which  would  have  insured  the  failure  of  the  expedi- 
tion if  Nelson  had  not  set  aside  precedent,  and  put  glory  before  duty. 
Parker,  indeed,  soon  set  Nelson  chafing  by  long  drawn-out  negotiations, 
which  proved  useless,  wasted  time,  and  saved  the  Danes  from  being  taken 
by  surprise.  When,  on  the  morning  of  April  3Oth,  the  British  fleet  at 
length  advanced  through  the  Sound  and  came  in  sight  of  the  Danish  line 
of  defence,  they  beheld  formidable  preparations  to  meet  them. 

Eighteen  vessels,  including  full-rigged  ships  and  hulks,  were  moored  in 
a  line  nearly  a  mile  and  a  half  in  length,  flanked  to  the  northward  by  two 


NELSON  AND   WELLINGTON,  THE  CHAMPIONS  OF  ENGLAND     103 

artificial  islands  mounted  with  sixty-eight  heavy  cannon  and  supplied  with 
furnaces  for  heating  shot.      Near  by  lay  two  large  block-ships.    The  Danish 
Across    the    harbor's    mouth    extended  a  massive  chain,  and      Line  of 
shore  batteries  commanded  the  channel.    Outside  the  harbor's      Defence 
mouth  were  moored  two  74-gun  ships,  a  4o-gun  frigate,  and  some  smaller 
vessels.     In   addition   to   these   defences,   which   stretched   for  nearly  four 
miles  in  length,  was  the  difficulty  of  the  channel,  'always  hazardous  from  its 
shoals,  and  now  beaconed  with  false  buoys  for  the  purpose  of  luring  the 
British  ships  to  destruction. 

With  modern  defences — rapid-fire  guns  and  steel-clad  batteries — the 
enterprise  would  have  been  hopeless,  but  the  art  of  defence  was  then  at  a 
far  lower  level.  Nelson,  who  led  the  van  in  the  74-gun  ship  Elephant,  gazed 
on  these  preparations  with  admiration,  but  with  no  evidence  of  doubt  as  to 
the  result.  The  British  fleet  consisted  of  eighteen  line  of  battle  ships,  with 
a  large  number  of  frigates  and  other  craft,  and  with  this  force,  and  his  in* 
domitable  spirit,  he  felt  confident  of  breaking  these  formidable  lines. 

At  ten  o'clock  on  the  morning  of  April  2d   the  battle  began,  two  of  the 
British  ships  running  aground  almost  before  a  gun  was   fired.    The  Attack  on 
At  sight  of  this  disaster  Nelson  instantly  changed  his  plan  of      the  Danish 
sailing,  starboarded  his  helm,  and  sailed    in,  dropping  anchor 
within  a  cable's  length  of  the  Dannebrog,  of   62  guns.      The  other  ships  fol- 
lowed his  example,  avoiding  the  shoals  on  which  the  B tllona  and  Russell  had 
grounded,  and  taking  position  at  the  close  quarters  of  100  fathoms  from  the 
Danish  ships. 

A  terrific  cannonade  followed,  kept  up  by  both  sides  with  unrelenting 
fury  for  three  hours,  and  with  terrible  effect  on  the  contesting  ships  and 
their  crews.  At  this  juncture  took  place  an  event  that  has  made  Nelson's 
name  immortal  among  naval  heroes  Admiral  Parker,  whose  flag-ship  lay 
at  a  distance  from  the  hot  fight,  but  who  heard  the  incessant  and  furious  fire 
and  saw  the  grounded  ships  flying  signals  of  distress,  began  to  fear  that  Nel- 
son was  in  serious  danger,  from  which  it  was  his  duty  to  withdraw  him.  At 
about  one  o'clock  he  reluctantly  hoisted  a  signal  for  the  action  to  cease. 

At  this  moment  Nelson  was  pacing  the  quarter-deck  of  the  Elephant, 
inspired  with  all  the  fury  of  the  fight;  "  It  is  a  warm  business,"  he  said  to 
Colonel  Stewart,  who  was  on  the  ship  with  him  ;  "and  any  moment  may  be 
the  last  of  either  of  us ;  but,  mark  you,  I  would  not  for  thousands  be  any- 
where else." 

As  he  spoke  the  flag-lieutenant  reported  that  the  signal  to  cease  action 
was  shown  on  the  mast-head  of  the  flag-ship  London,  and  asked  if  he  should 
report  it  to  the  fleet. 


104 


NELSON  AND   WELLINGTON,   THE  CHAMPIONS  OF  ENGLAND 


"  No,"  was  the  stern  answer  ;  "  merely  acknowledge  it.      Is  our  signal 
for  'close  action'  still  flying?" 
"Yes,"  replied  the  officer. 

"  Then  see  that  you  keep  it  so,"  said   Nelson,  the   stump 
How  Nelson  J         •    •   *  .  '  ' 

Answered  the  of  his  amputated  arm  working  as  it   usually  did  when  he  was 

Signal  to  ^  agitated.  '*  Do  you  know,"  he  asked  Colonel  Stewart,  "  the 
meaning  of  signal  No.  39,  shown  by  Parker's  ships?" 

"  No.     What  does  it  mean  ?" 

"  To  leave  off  action  !"  He  was  silent  a  moment,  then  burst  out, 
'•'  Now  damn  me  if  I  do  !" 

Turning  to  Captain  Foley,  who  stood  near  him,  he  said  :  "  Foley,  you 
know  I  have  only  one  eye  ;  I  have  a  right  to  be  blind  sometimes."  He  raised 
his  telescope,  applied  it  to  his  blind  eye,  and  said  :  "  I  really  do  not  see  the 
signal." 

On  roared  the  guns,  overhead  on  the  Elephant  still  streamed  the  signal 
for  "close  action, "and  still  the  torrent  of  British  balls  rent  the  Danish  ships. 
In  half  an  hour  more  the  fire  of  the  Danes  was  fast  weakening.  -In  an  hour 
it  had  nearly  ceased.  They  had  suffered  frightfully,  in  ships  and  lives,  and 
only  the  continued  fire  of  the  shore  batteries  now  kept  the  contest  alive.  It 
was  impossible  to  take  possession  of  the  prizes,  and  Nelson  sent  a  flag  of 
truce  ashore  with  a  letter  in  which  he  threatened  to  burn  the  vessels,  with 
all  on  board,  unless  the  shore  fire  was  stopped.  This  threat  proved  effec- 
tive, the  fire  ended,  the  great  battle  was  at  an  end. 

At  four  o'clock  Nelson  went  on  board  the  London,  to  meet  the  admiral. 
He  was  depressed  in  spirit,  and  said  :  "  I  have  fought  contrary  to  orders,  and 
may  be  hanged  ;  never  mind,  let  them." 

There  was  no  danger  of  this  ;  Parker  was  not  that  kind  of  man.  He 
had  raised  the  signal  through  fear  for  Nelson's  safety,  and  now  gloried  in 
his  success,  giving  congratulations  where  his  subordinate  looked  for  blame. 
The  Danes  had  fought  bravely  and  stubbornly,  but  they  had  no  commander 
of  the  spirit  and  genius  of  Nelson,  and  were  forced  to  yield  to  British  pluck 
and  endurance.  Until  June  I3th,  Nelson  remained  in  the  Baltic,  watching 
the  Russian  fleet  which  he  might  still  have  to  fight.  Then  came  orders  for 
his  return  home,  and  word  reached  him  that  he  had  been  created  Viscount 
Nelson  for  his  services. 

There  remains  to  describe  the  last  and  most  famous  of  Nelson's 
exploits,  that  in  which  he  put  an  end  to  the  sea-power  of  France,  by  destroy- 
ing the  remainder  of  her  fleet  at  Trafalgar,  and  met  death  at  the  moment  of 
victory.  Four  years  had  passed  since  the  fight  at  Copenhagen.  During 
much  of  that  time  Nelson  had  kept  his  fleet  on  guard  off  Toulon,  impatiently 


NELSON  AND  WELLINGTON,  THE  CHAMPIONS  OF  ENGLAND     105 

waiting  until  the  enemy  should  venture  from  that  port  of  refuge.  At  length, 
the  combined  fleet  of  France  and  Spain,  now  in  alliance,  escaped  his  vigil- 
ance, and  sailed  to  the  West  Indies  to  work  havoc  in  the 'Nelson  in  chase 
British  colonies.  He  followed  them  thither  in  all  haste  ;  and  of  the  French 
subsequently,  on  their  return  to  France,  he  chased  them  back 
across  the  seas,  burning  with  eagerness  to  bring  them  to  bay. 

On   the   I  Qth  of  October,    1805,  the  allied  fleet  put   to  sea  from  the 
harbor  of  Cadiz,  confident  that   its  great   strength  would    enable  it  to  meet 
any  force  the   British  had  upon  the  waves.     Admiral  De  Villeneuve,  with 
thirty-three  ships  of  the  line  and  a  considerable  number  of  smaller  craft,  had 
orders  to    force   the    straits  of    Gibraltar,    land   troops  at  Naples,    sweep 
British  cruisers  and  commerce  from  the   Mediterranean,  and  then  seek  the 
port  of  Toulon  to  refit.     As  it  turned  out,  he  never  reached  the  straits,  his 
fleet  meeting  its  fate  before  it  could  leave  the  Atlantic  waves.     Nelson  had 
reached  the  coast  of  Europe  again,  and  was  close  at  hand  when  the  doomed 
ships  of    the  allies  appeared.     Two  swift   ocean  scouts    saw   The  Anied 
the  movements,  and  hastened   to   Lord   Nelson  with  the  wel-      Fleet  Leaves 
come   news   that  the  long-deferred  moment  was  at  hand.     On      Cadiz 
the  2  ist,  the   British  fleet  came  within  view,  and  the  following  signal  was 
set  on  the  mast-head  of  the  flag-ship: 

"The.  French  and  Spaniards  are  out  at  last;  they  outnumber  us  in 
ships  and  guns  and  men  ;  we  are  on  the  eve  of  the  greatest  sea-fight  in 
history." 

On  came  the  ships,  great  lumbering  craft,  strangely  unlike  the  war- 
vessels  of  to-day.  Instead  of  the  trim,  grim,  steel-clad,  steam-driven 
modern  battle-ship,  with  its  revolving  turret,  and  great  frowning,  breech- 
loading  guns,  sending  their  balls  through  miles  of  air,  those  were  bluff- 
bowed,  ungainly  hulks,  with  bellying  sides  towering  like  black  walls  above 
the  sea  as  if  to  make  the  largest  mark  possible  for  hostile  shot,  with  a  great 
show  of  muzzle-loading  guns  of  small  range,  while  overhead  rose  lofty  spars 
and  spreading  sails.  Ships  they  were  that  to-day  would  be  sent  to  the 
bottom  in  five  minutes  of  fight,  but  which,  mated  against  others  of  the  same 
build,  were  capable  of  giving  a  gallant  account  of  themselves. 

It  was  off  the  shoals  of  Cape  Trafalgar,  near  the  southern 
extremity  of  Spain,  that  the  two  fleets  met,  and  such  a  tornado 
of  fire  as  has  rarely  been  seen  upon  the  ocean  waves  was  poured 
from  their  broad  and  lofty  sides.  As  they  came  together  there  floated  from 
the  masthead  of  the  Victory,  Nelson's  flagship,  that  signal  which  has  become 
the  watchword  of  the  British  isles :  '*  England  expects  that  every  man  will 
do  hjs  duty." 


106     NELSON  AND   WELLINGTON,  THE  CHAMPIONS  OF  ENGLAND 

We  cannot  follow  the  fortunes  of  all  the  vessels  in  that  stupendous 

fray,  the   most   famous   sea-fight   in  history.     It  must  serve  to  follow  the 

Victory  in  her  course,  in  which  Nelson  eagerly  sought  to  thrust  himself  into 

The  "Victory"    t^le  neart  °f  the  fight  and  dare  death  in  his  quest  for  victory. 

andHerBril-     He  was  not  long  in  meeting  his  wish.     Soon  he  found  himself 

hant  Fight        jn  a  nest  Qf  enemjes>  eight  ships  at  once  pouring  their  fire 

upon  his  devoted  vessel,  which  could  not   bring  a  gun   to  bear   in   return, 

the  wind   having   died   away  and   the    ship   lying  almost   motionless   upon 

the  waves. 

Before  the  Victory  was  able  to  fire  a  shot  fifty  of  her  men  had  fallen 
killed  or  wounded,  and  her  canvas  was  pierced  and  rent  till  it  looked  like  a 
series  of  fishing  nets.  But  the  men  stuck  to  their  guns  with  unyielding 
tenacity,  and  at  length  their  opportunity  came.  A  68-pounder  carronade, 
loaded  with  a  round  shot  and  500  musket  balls,  was  fired  into  the  cabin 
windows  of  the  Bucentaure,  with  such  terrible  effect  as  to  disable  400  men 
and  20  guns,  and  put  the  ship  practically  out  of  the  fight. 

The  Victory  next  turned  upon  the  Neptune  and  the  Redoubtable,  of  the 
enemy's  fleet.  The  Neptune,  not  liking  her  looks,  kept  off,  but  she  collided 
and  locked  spars  with  the  Redoubtable,  and  a  terrific  fight  began.  On  the 
opposite  side  of  the  Redoubtable  came  the  British  ship  Temeraire,  and 
opposite  it  again  a  second  ship  of  the  enemy,  the  four  vessels  lying  bow  to 
bow,  and  rending  one  another's  sides  with  an  incessant  hail  of  balls.  On 
the  Victory  the  gunners  were  ordered  to  depress  their  pieces,  that  the  balls 
should  not  go  through  and  wound  the  Temeraire  beyond.  The  muzzles  of 
their  cannon  fairly  touched  the  enemy's  side,  and  after  each  shot  a  bucket 
of  water  was  dashed  into  the  rent,  that  they  may  not  set  fire  to  the  vessel 
which  they  confidently  expected  to  take  as  a  prize. 

In  the  midst  of  the  hot  contest  came  the  disaster  already  spoken  of. 
Brass  swivels  were  mounted  in  the  French  ship's  tops  to  sweep  with  their 
fire  the  deck  of  their  foe,  and  as  Nelson  and  Captain  Hardy  paced  together 
their  poop  deck,  regardless  of  danger,  the  admiral  suddenly  fell.  A  ball 
from  one  of  these  guns  had  reached  the  noblest  mark  on  the  fleet. 
The  Great  Battle  "They  have  done  for  me  at  last,  Hardy,"  the  fallen 

and  its  Sad       man  said. 

"  Don't  say  you  are  hit !  "  cried  Hardy  in  dismay. 

"Yes,  my  backbone  is  shot  through." 

His  words  were  not  far  from  the  truth.  He  never  arose  from  that 
fatal  shot.  Yet,  dying  as  he  was,  his  spirit  survived. 

"  I  hope  none  of  our  ships  have  struck,  Hardy,"  he  feebly  asked,  in  a 
later  interval  of  the  fight. 


NELSON  AND   WELLINGTON,  THE  CHAMPIONS  OF  ENGLAND      107 

"  No,  my  lord.     There  is  small  fear  of  that," 

"  I'm  a  dead  man,  Hardy,  but  I'm  glad  of  what  you  say.  Whip  them  now 
you've  got  them.  Whip  them  as  they've  never  been  whipped  before." 

Another  hour  passed.  Hardy  came  below  again  to  say  that  fourteen 
or  fifteen  of  the  enemy's  ships  had  struck. 

"  That's  better,  though  I  bargained  for  twenty,"  said  the  dying  man. 
"And  now,  anchor,  Hardy — anchor." 

"  I  suppose,  my  lord,  that  Admiral  Collingwood  will  now  take  the  direc- 
tion of  affairs." 

"  Not  while  1  live,"  exclaimed  Nelson,  with  a  momentary  return  of 
energy.  "  Do  you  anchor,  Hardy." 

"  Then  shall  we  make  the  signal,  my  lord." 

"Yes,  for  if  I  live,  I'll  anchor." 

That  was  the  end.      Five  minutes  later  Horatio  Nelson,    victory  for 
England's  greatest   sea   champion,  was   dead.      He  had   won       England  and 

11          •          i  i        r        •         i        i         i          r      i        XT-I  •  Death  for  Her 

both  prizes  he  sought  tor  in   the    battle   of   the  Nile — victory       Famous 

and  Westminister  Abbey.  Admiral 

Collingwood  did  not  anchor,  but  stood  out  to  sea  with  the  eighteen  prizes 
of  the  hard  fought  fray.  In  the  gale  that  followed  many  of  the  results  of 
victory  were  lost,  four  of  the  ships  being  retaken,  some  wrecked  on  shore, 
some  foundering  at  sea,  only  four  reaching  British  waters  in  Gibraltar  Bay. 
But  whatever  was  lost,  Nelson's  fame  was  secure,  and  the  victory  at  Trafalgar 
is  treasured  as  one  of  the  most  famous  triumphs  of  British  arms. 

The  naval  battle  at  Copenhagen,  won  by  Nelson,  was  followed,  six  years 
later,  by  a  combined  land  and  naval  expedition  in  which  Wellington,  Eng- 
land's other  champion,  took  part.  Again  inspired  by  the  fear  that  Napoleon 
might  use  the  Danish  fleet  for  his  own  purposes,  the  British  government, 
though  at  peace  with  Denmark,  sent  a  fleet  to  Copenhagen,  bombarded 
and  captured  the  city,  and  seized  the  Danish  ships.  A  battle  took  place  on 
land  in  which  Wellington  (then  Sir  Arthur  Wellesley)  won  an  easy  victory 
and,  captured  10,000  men.  The  whole  business  was  an  inglorious  one,  a 
dishonorable  incident  in  a  struggle  in  which  the  defeat  of  Napaleon  stood 
first,  honor  second.  Among  the  English  themselves  some  defended  it  on  the 
plea  of  policy,  some  called  it  piracy  and  murder. 

Not  long  afterwards  England  prepared  to  take  a  serious 
part  on  land  in  the  desperate  contest  with  Napoleon,  and  sent 
a  British  force  to  Portugal,  then  held  by  the  French  army  of 
invasion  under  Marshal  Junot.  This  force,  10,000  strong,  was  commanded 
by  Sir  Arthur  Wellesley,  and  landed  July  30,  1808,  at  Mondego  Bay.  He 
was  soon  joined  by  General  Spencer  from  Cadiz,  with  13,000  men. 


i  oS     NELSON  AND   WELLINGTON,  THE  CHAMPIONS  OF  ENGLAND 

The  French,  far  from  home  and  without  support,  were  seriously  alarmed 
at  this  invasion,  and  justly  so,  for  they  met  with  defeat  in  a  sharp  battle  at 
Vimeira,  and  would  probably  have  been  forced  to  surrender  as  prisoners  of 
war  had  not  the  troops  been  called  off  from  pursuit  by  Sir  Harry  Burrard, 
who  had  been  sent  out  to  supersede  Wellesley  in  command.  The  end  of  it 
all  was  a  truce,  and  a  convention  under  whose  terms  the  French  troops 
were  permitted  to  evacuate  Portugal  with  their  arms  and  baggage  and  return 
to  France.  This  release  of  Junot  from  a  situation  which  precluded  escape 
so  disgusted  Wellesley  that  he  threw  up  his  command  and  returned  to 
The  Death  of  England.  Other  troops  sent  out  under  Sir  John  Moore  and 
Sir  John  Sir  David  Baird  met  a  superior  force  of  French  in  Spain,  and 

their  expedition  ended  in  disaster.  Moore  was  killed  while 
the  troops  were  embarking  to  return  home,  and  the  memory  of  this  affair 
has  been  preserved  in  the  famous  ode,  "  The  burial  of  Sir  John  Moore," 
from  which  we  quote  : 

"We-buried  him  darkly  at  dead  of  night, 
The  sod  with  our  bayonets  turning, 
By  the  glimmering  moonbeams'  misty  light 
And  the  lanterns  dimly  burning. ' ' 

In  April,  1809,  Wellesley  returned  to  Portugal,  now  chief  in  command, 
to  begin  a  struggle  which  was  to  continue  until  the  fall  of  Napoleon.  There 
were  at  that  time  about  20,000  British  soldiers  at  Lisbon,  while  the  French 
had  in  Spain  more  than  300,000  men,  under  such  generals  as  Ney,  Soult,  and 
Victor.  The  British,  indeed,  were  aided  by  a  large  number  of  natives  in 
arms.  But  these,  though  of  service  as  guerillas,  were  almost  useless  in  reg- 
ular warfare. 

Wellesley  was  at  Lisbon.  Oporto,  170  miles  north,  was  held  by  Mar- 
shal Soult,  who  had  recently  taken  it.  Without  delay  Wellington  marched 
The  Gallant  thither,  and  drove  the  French  outposts  across  the  river  Douro. 
Crossing  of  But  in  their  retreat  they  burned  the  bridge  of  boats  across 
the  river,  seized  every  boat  they  could  find,  and  rested  in 
security,  defying  their  foes  to  cross.  Soult,  veteran  officer  though  he  was, 
fancied  that  he  had  disposed  of  Wellesley,  and  massed  his  forces  on  the  sea- 
coast  side  of  the  town,  in  which  quarter  alone  he  looked  for  an  attack. 

He  did  not  know  his  antagonist.  A  few  skiffs  were  secured,  and  2 
small  party  of  British  was  sent  across  the  stream.  The  French  attacked 
them,  but  they  held  their  ground  till  some  others  joined  them,  and  by  the 
time  Soult  was  informed  of  the  danger  Wellesley  had  landed  a  large  force 
and  controlled  a  good  supply  of  boats.  A  battle  followed  in  which  the 
French  were  routed  and  forced  to  retreat.  But  the  only  road  by  which  theii 


NELSON  AND  WELLINGTON.  THE  CHAMPIONS  OF  ENGLAND     1 1 1 

artillery  or  baggage  could  be  moved  had  been  seized  by  General  Beresford, 
and  was  strongly  held.  In  consequence  Soult  was  forced  to  abandon  all  his 
wagons  and  cannon  and  make  his  escape  by  bye-roads  into  Spain. 

This  signal   victory  was   followed  by  another   on   July  27,  1809,   when 
Wellesley,  with  20,000  British  soldiers  and  about  40,000  Span- 
ish  allies,  met  a  French   army  of  60,000  men   at  Talavera  in      Talavera  and 
Spain.     The  battle  that  succeeded  lasted  two  days.    The  brunt      the  Victor's 
of  it  fell  upon  the  British,  the  Spaniards  proving  of  little  use, 
yet  it  ended  in  the  defeat  of  the  French,  who  retired  unmolested,  the  British 
being  too  exhausted  to  pursue. 

The  tidings  of  this  victory  were  received  with  the  utmost  enthusiasm 
in  England.  It  was  shown  by  it  that  British  valor  could  win  battles  against 
Napoleon's  on  land  as  well  as  on  sea.  Wellesley  received  the  warmest 
thanks  of  the  king,  and,  like  Nelson,  was  rewarded  by  being  raised  to  the 
peerage,  being  given  the  titles  of  Baron  Douro  of  Wellesley  and  Viscount 
Wellington  of  Talavera.  In  future  we  shall  call  him  by  his  historic  title  of 
Wellington. 

Men  and  supplies  just  then  would  have  served  Wellington  better  than 
titles.  With  strong  support  he  could  have  marched  on  and  taken  Madrid. 
As  it  was,  he  felt  obliged  to  retire  upon  the  fortress  of  Badajoz,  near  the 
frontier  of  Portugal.  Spain  was  swarming  with  French  soldiers,  who  were 
gradually  collected  diere  until  they  exceeded  350,000  men.  Of  these  80,000, 
under  the  command  of  Massena,  were  sent  to  act  against  the  British.  Before 
this  strong  force  Wellington  found  it  necessary  to  draw  back,  and  the  frontier 
fortresses  of  Almeida  and  Ciudad  Rodrigo  were  taken  by  the  French.  Well- 
ington's first  stand  was  on  the  heights  of  Busaco,  September,  1810.  Here, 
with  30,000  men,  he  withstood  all  the  attacks  of  the  French,  who  in  the  end 
were  forced  to  withdraw.  Massena  then  tried  to  gain  the  road  between 
Lisbon  and  Oporto,  whereupon  Wellington  quickly  retreated  towards  Lisbon. 

The  British  general  had  during  the  winter  been  very  usefully  employed. 
The  road  by  which  Lisbon  must  be  approached  passes  the  village  of  Torres 
Vedras,  and  here  two  strong  lines  of  earthworks  were  con-  , 

structed,  some   twenty-five    miles  in  length,   stretching  from      impregnable 

the  sea  to  the  Tagus,  and  effectually  securing-  Lisbon  against      Lines  at 

i         -ru  1       u    J    i-  u    -i         •  u    '  j       Torres  Vedras 

attack.      Ihese  works  had  been   built  with  such  secrecy  and 

despatch  th'at  the  French  were  quite  ignorant  of  their  existence,  and 
Massena,  marching  in  confidence  upon  the  Portuguese  capital,  was  amazed 
and  chagrined  on  finding  before  him  this  formidable  barrier. 

It  was  strongly  defended,  and  all  his  efforts  to  take  it  proved  in  vain. 
He  then  tried  to  reduce  the  British  by  famine,  but  in  this  he  was  equally 


ii2     NELSON  AND   WELLINGTON,   THE  CHAMPIONS  OF  ENGLAND 

baffled,  food  being  poured  into  Lisbon  from  the  sea.  He  tried  by  a  feigned 
retreat  to  draw  the  British  from  their  works,  but  this  stratagem  failed  of 
effect,  and  for  four  months  more  the  armies  remained  inactive.  At  length 
the  exhaustion  of  the  country  of  provisions  made  necessary  a  real  retreat, 
and  Massena  withdrew  across  the  Spanish  frontier,  halting  near  Salamanca. 
Of  the  proud  force  with  which  .Napoleon  proposed  to  "drive  the  British 
leopards  into  the  sea,"  more  than  half  had  vanished  in  this  luckless  cam- 
paign. 

But  though  the  French  army  had  withdrawn  from  Portugal,  the  frontier 

fortresses   were    still    in    French    hands,   and  of   these  Almeida,   near    the 

borders,  was   the  first  to  be  attacked  -by  Wellington's  forces. 

Capture  Tf        Massena  advanced  with  50,000  men  to  its  relief,  and  the  two 

the  For-  armies  met  at   Fuentes-de-Onoro,  May  4,  1811.     The   French 

tuguese  made  attacks  on  the  sth  and  6th, 'but  were  each  time  repulsed, 

Fortresses 

and  on  the  7th  Massena  retreated,  sending  orders  to  the  gov- 
ernor of  Almeida  to  destroy  the  fortifications  and  leave  the  place. 

Another  battle  was  fought  in  front  of  Badajoz  of  the  most  sanguinary 
character,  the  total  loss  of  the  two  armies  being  15,000  killed  and  wounded. 
For  a  time  the  British  seemed  threatened  with  inevitable  defeat,  but  the 
fortune  of  the  day  was  turned  into  victory  by  a  desperate  charge.  Subse- 
quently Ciudad  Rodrigo  was  attacked,  and  was  carried  by  storm,  in  January, 
1812.  Wellington  then  returned  to  Badajoz,  which  was  also  taken  by 
storm,  after  a  desperate  combat  in  which  the  victors  lost  5,000  men,  a  number 
exceeding  that  of  the  whole  French  garrison. 

These  continued  successes  of  the  British  were  seriously  out  of  conso- 
nance with  the  usual   exploits  of  Napoleon's  armies.      He  was  furious  with 
his  marshals,  blaming   them  severely,  and  might  have  taken  their  place  in 
the  struggle  with  Wellington  but  that  his  fatal  march  to  Russia  was  about 
Weliin  ton          to    begin.      The    fortress    taken,    Wellington    advanced   into 
WinsatSala-    Spain,  and  on  July  2ist  encountered  the  French  army  under 
mancaand        Marmont    before   the  famous  old    town  of  Salamanca.     The 
battle,  one  of  the  most  stubbornly  contested  in  which  Welling- 
ton had  yet  been  engaged,  ended  in  the  repulse  of  the  French,  and  on  August 
1 2th  the   British    army  marched   into   Madrid,   the   capital  of  Spain,   from 
which  King  Joseph  Bonaparte  had  just  made  his  second  flight. 

Wellington's  next  effort  was  a  siege  of  the  strong  fortress  of  Burgos. 
This  proved  the  one  failure  in  his  military  career,  he  being  obliged  to  raise 
the  siege  after  several  weeks  of  effort.  In  the  following  year  he  was  strongly 
reinforced,  and  with  an  army  numbering  nearly  200,000  men  he  marched  on 
the  retreating  enemy,  meeting  them  at  Vittoria,  near  the  boundary  of 


NELSON  AND  WELLINGTON,  THE  CHAMPIONS  OP  ENGLAND     rt3 

France  and  Spain,  on  June  21,  1813.     The  French  were  for  the  first  time 
in  this  war  in  a  minority.    They  were  also  heavily  encumbered  with  baggage, 

the  spoils  of  their  occupation  of  Spain.     The  battle  ended  in 

,  .  f       ,\r   ...  r   .  Vittoria  and  the 

a  complete  victory  for  Wellington,  who  captured    157  cannon       pyrenees 

and  a  vast  quantity  of  plunder,  including  the  spoils  of  Madrid 
and  of  the  palace  of  the  kings  of  Spain.     The  specie,  of  which  a  large  sum 
was  taken,  quickly  disappeared  among  the  troops,  and  failed  to  reach  the 
treasure  chests  of  the  army. 

The  French  were  now  everywhere  on  the  retreat.  Soult,  after  a  vigor- 
ous effort  to  drive  the  British  from  the  passes  of  the  Pyrenees,  withdrew, 
and  Wellington  and  his  army  soon  stood  on  the  soil  of  France.  A  victory 
over  Soult  at  Nivelle,  and  a  series  of  successes  in  the  following  spring,  ended 
the  long  Peninsular  War,  the  abdication  of  Napoleon  closing  the  long  and 
terrible  drama  of  battle.  In  the  whole  six  years  of  struggle  Wellington  had 
not  once  been  defeated  on  the  battlefield. 

His  military  career  had  not  yet  ended.  His  great  day  of  glory  was 
still  to  come,  that  in  which  he  was  to  meet  Napoleon  himself  in  the  field, 
and,  for  the  first  time  in  the  history  of  the  great  Corsican,  drive  back  his 
army  in  utter  rout. 

A  year  or  more  had  passed  since  the  events  just  narrated.     In  June, 
1815,  Wellington  found  himself  at  the  head  of  an  army  some  100,000  strong, 
encamped   around  Brussels,  the  capital  of  Belgium.     It  was  a   The  Gathering 
mingled   group   of  British,  Dutch,   Belgian,  Hanoverian,  Ger-      of  the  Forces 
man,  and  other  troops,  hastily  got  together,  and  many  of  them      at  Brussels 
not  safely  to  be  depended  upon.     Of  the  British,  numbers  had  never  been 
under  fire.      Marshal  Blucher,  with  an   equal  force  of  Prussian   troops,  was 
near   at  hand ;   the   two    forces    prepared    to   meet   the    rapidly  advancing 
Napoleon. 

We  have  already  told  of  the  defeat  of  Blucher  at  Ligny,  and  the  attack 
on  Wellington  at  Quatre  Bras.  On  the  evening  of  the  i;th  the  army,  re- 
treating from  Quatre  Bras,  encamped  in  the  historic  field  of  Waterloo  in  a 
drenching  rain,  that  turned  the  roads  into  streams,  the  fields  into  swamps. 
All  night  long  the  rain  came  down,  the  soldiers  enduring  the  flood  with  what 
patience  they  could.  In  the  morning  it  ceased,  fires  were  kindled,  and  active 
preparations  began  for  the  terrible  struggle  at  hand. 

Here  rah  a  shallow  valley,  bounded  by  two  ridges,  the 
northern  of  which  was  occupied  by  the  British,  while  Napoleon      0^ 
posted  his  army  on  its  arrival  along  the  southern  ridge.     On 
the  slope  before  the   British  centre  was  the  white-walled  farm  house  of  La 
Haye  Sainte,  and  i'n  front  of  the  right  wing  the  chateau  of  Hougoumont, 


tr4     NELSON  AND  WELLINGTON,  THE  CHAMPIONS  OF  ENGLAND 

with  its  various  stout  stone  buildings.  Both  of  these  were  occupied  by  men 
of  Wellington's  army,  and  became  leading  points  in  the  struggle  of  the  day. 
It  was  nine  o'clock  in  the  morning  before  the  van-guard  of  the  French 
army  made  its  appearance  on  the  crest  of  the  southern  ridge.  By  half-past 
ten  6i,oco  soldiers, — infantry,  cavalry,  and  artillery — lay  encamped  in  full 
sight.  About  half-past  eleven  came  the  first  attack  of  that  remarkable  day, 
during  which  the  French  waged  an  aggressive  battle,  the  British  stood  on 
the  defensive. 

This  first  attack  was  directed  against  Hougoumont,  around  which  there 

The  Desperate     was  a  desperate  contest.     At  this  point  the  affray  went  on,  in 

Charges  of       successive  waves  of  attack  and  repulse,  all  day  long  ;  yet  still 

the  French       the  British  heid  the  buildings,  and  all  the  fierce  valor  of  the 

French  failed  to  gain  them  a  foothold  within. 

About  two  o'clock  came  a  second  attack,  preceded  by  a  frightful  can- 
nonade upon  the  British  left  and  centre.  Four  massive  columns,  led  by 
Ney,  poured  steadily  forward  straight  for  the  ridge,  sweeping  upon  arid 
around  the  farm-stead  of  La  Haye  Sairite,  but  met  at  every  point  by  the 
sabres  and  bayonets  of  the  British  lines.  Nearly  24,000  men  took  part  in 
this  great  movement,  the  struggle  lasting  more  than  an  hour  before  the 
French  staggered  back  in  repulse.  Then  from  the  French  lines  came  a 
stupendous  cavalry  charge,  the  massive  columns  composed  of  no  less  than 
forty  squadrons  of  cuirassiers  and  dragoons,  filling  almost  all  the  space 
between  Hougoumont  and  La  Haye  Sainte  as  they  poured  like  a  torrent 
upon  the  British  lines.  Torn  by  artillery,  rent  by  musketry  ;  checked, 
reformed ;  charging  again,  and  again  driven  back ;  they  expended  their 
strength  and  their  lives  on  the  infantry  squares  that  held  their  ground  with 
the  grimmest  obstinacy.  Once  more,  now  strengthened  by  the  cavalry 
of  the  Imperial  Guard,  they  came  on  to  carnage  and  death,  shattering 
themselves  against  those  unyielding  squares,  and  in  the  end  repulsed  with 
frightful  loss. 

The  day  was   now  well    advanced,  it  being  half-past   four  in  the  after- 
noon ;  the  British  had  been  fearfully  shaken   by  the  furious  efforts  of  the 
French ;    when,   emerging    from   the  woods  at    St.    Lambert, 
Prussians         appeared  the  head  of  a  column  of  fresh  troops.     Who  were 
and  the  they?     Blucher's   Prussians,  or   Grouchy's  pursuing   French? 

Charge  of         Qn  the  answer  to  this  question  depended  the  issue  of  that 
Napoleon's  -111  T-I  •  1-111  1 

Old  Guard        terrible  day.      1  he  question  was  soon  decided  ;    they  were  the 

Prussians  ;  no  sign  appeared  of  the  French  ;  the  hearts  of  the 
British  beat  high  with  hope  and  those  of  the  French  sank  low  in  despair, 
for  these  fresh  troops  could  not  fail  to  decide  the  fate  of  that  mighty 


NELSON-  AND  WELLINGTON,  THE  CHAMPIONS  OF  ENGLAND     115 

field  of  battle.  Soon  the  final  struggle  came.  Napoleon,  driven  to  despera- 
tion, launched  his  grand  reserve  corps,  the  far-famed  Imperial  Guard,  upon 
his  enemies.  On  they  come,  with  Ney  at  their  head ;  on  them  pours  a 
terrible  torrent  of  flame  ;  from  a  distance  the  front  ranks  appear  stationary, 
but  only  because  they  meet  a  death-line  as  they  come,  and  fall  in  bleeding 
rows.  Then  on  them,  in  a  wild  charge,  rush  the  British  Foot  Guards,  take 
them  in  flank,  and  soon  all  is  over.  "  The  Guard  dies,  but  never  surrenders," 
says  their  commander.  Die  they  do,  few  of  them  surviving  to  take  part  i.i 
that  mad  flight  which  swept  Napoleon  from  the  field  and  closed  the  fatal 
day  of  Waterloo.  England  has  won  the  great  victory,  now  nearly  a  century 
old,  and  Wellington  from  that  day  of  triumph  takes  rank  with  the  greatest 
of  British  heroes. 


CHAPTER  VI. 

From  the  Napoleonic  Wars  to  the  Revolution  of  1830 

THE  terrific  struggle  of  the  "Hundred  Days,"  which  followed  Napo- 
leon's return  from  Elba  and  preceded  his  exile  to  St.  Helena,  made 
a  serious  break  in  the  deliberations  of  the  Congress  of  Vienna,  con- 
vened for  the  purpose  of  recasting  the  map  of  Europe,  which   Napoleon 
had  so  sadly  transformed,  of  setting  aside  the  radical  work  of  the  French 
A  Quarter  Revolution,  and,  in  a  word,  of  turning  back  the  hands  of  the 

Century  of  clock  of  time.  Twenty-five  years  of  such  turmoil  and  volcanic 
Revolution  disturbance  as  Europe  had  rarely  known  were  at  an  end  ;  the 
ruling  powers  were  secure  of  their  own  again  ;  the  people,  worn-out  with 
the  long  and  bitter  struggle,  welcomed  eagerly  the  return  of  rest  and  peace ; 
and  the  emperors  and  kings  deemed  it  a  suitable  time  to  throw  overboard 
the  load  of  new  ideas  under  which  the  European  "  ship  of  state  "  seemed 
to  them  likely  to  founder. 

The  Congress  of  Vienna  was,  in  its  way,  a  brilliant  gathering.  It 
included,  mainly  as  handsome  ornaments,  the  emperors  of  Russia  and 
Austria,  the  kings  of  Prussia,  Denmark,  Bavaria  and  Wurtemberg ;  and,  as 
its  working  element,  the  leading  statesmen  of  Europe,  including  the  Eng- 
lish Castlereagh  and  Wellington,  the  French  Talleyrand,  the 
TofVte"i?nT8  Prussian  Hardenberg,  and  the  Austrian  Metternich.  Checked 
in  its  delibrations  for  a  time  by  Napoleon's  fierce  hundred 
days'  death  struggle,  it  quickly  settled  down  to  work  again,  having  before 
it  the  vast  task  of  undoing  the  mighty  results  of  a  quarter  of  a  century  of 
revolution.  For  the  French  Revolution  had  broadened  into  an  European 
revolution,  with  Napoleon  and  his  armies  as  its  great  instruments.  -The 
whole  continent  had  been  sown  thickly  during  the  long  era  of  war  with  the 
Napoleonic  ideas,  and  a  crop  of  new  demands  and  conditions  had  grown  up 
not  easily  to  be  uprooted. 

Reaction  was  the  order  of  the  day  in  the  Vienna  Congress.  The 
shaken  power  of  the  monarchs  was  to  be  restored,  the  map  of  Europe  to  be 
readjusted,  the  people  to  be  put  back  into  the  submissive  condition  which 
they  occupied  before  that  eventful  1789,  when  the  States-General  of  France 
began  its  momentous  work  of  overturning  the  equilibrium  of  the  world. 

(116) 


FROM  THE  NAPOLEONIC  WARS  TO  1830  117 

As  for  the  people,   deeply  infected  as  they  were  with  the  new   ideas  of 
liberty  and  the  rights  of   man,    which    had    made  their  way   Europe  After 
far  beyond  the  borders  of  France,  they  were  for  the  time  worn-      Napoleon's 
out   with    strife    and    turmoil,   and    settled    back   supinely  to      Fal1 
enjoy  the  welcome  era  of  rest,  leaving  their  fate  in  the  hands  of  the  astute 
plenipotentiaries  who  were  gathered  in  their  wisdom  at  Vienna. 

These  worthy  tools  of  the  monarchs  had  an  immense  task  before 
them — too  large  a  one,  as  it  proved.  It  was  easy  to  talk  about  restoring  to 
the  nations  the  territory  they  had  possessed  before  Napoleon  began  his 
career  as  a  map-maker ;  but  it  was  not  easy  to  do  so  except  at  the  cost  of 
new  wars.  The  territories  of  many  of  the  powers  had  been  added  to  by 
the  French  emperor,  and  they  were  not  likely  to  give  up  their  new  posses- 
sions without  a  vigorous  protest.  In  Germany  the  changes  had  been 
enormous.  Napoleon  had  found  there  more  than  three  hundred  separate 
states,  some  no  larger  than  a  small  American  county,  yet  each  possessed  of 
the  paraphernalia  of  a  court  and  sovereign,  a  capital,  an  army  and  a  public 
debt.  And  these  were  feebly  combined  into  the  phantasm  known  as  the 
Holy  Roman  Empire.  When  Napoleon  had  finished*  his  work  this  empire 
had  ceased  to  exist,  except  as  a  tradition,  and  the  great  galaxy  of  sovereign 
states  was  reduced  to  thirty-nine.  These  included  the  great  dominions  of 
Austria  and  Prussia ;  the  smaller  states  of  Bavaria,  Saxony,  Hanover  and 
Wurtemberg,  which  Napoleon  had  raised  into  kingdoms ;  and  a  vastly 
reduced  group  of  minor  states.  The  work  done  here  it  was  somewhat 
dangerous  to  meddle  with.  The  small  potentates  of  Germany  were  like  so 
many  bull-dogs,  glaring  jealously  across  their  new  borders,  and  ready  to  fly 
at  one  another's  throats  at  any  suggestion  of  a  change.  The 
utmost  they  would  yield  was  to  be  united  into  a  confederacy 
called  the  Bund,  with  a  Diet  meeting  at  Frankfurt.  But 
as  the  delegates  to  the  Diet  were  given  no  law-making  power,  the  Bund 
became  an  empty  farce. 

The  great  powers  took  care  to  regain  their  lost  possessions,  or  to 
replace  them  with  an  equal  amount  of  territory.  Prussia  and  Austria  spread 
out  again  to  their  old  size,  though  they  did  not  cover  quite  the  old  ground. 
Most  of  their  domains  in  Poland  were  given  up,  Prussia  getting  new  terri- 
tory in  West  Germany  and  Austria  in  Italy  Their  provinces  in  Poland  were 
ceded  to  Alexander  of  Russia,  who  added  to  their  some  of  his  own  Polish 
dominions,  and  formed  a  new  kingdom  of  Poland,  he  being  its  king.  So  in  a 
shadowy  way  Poland  was  brought  to  life  again.  England  got  for  her  share  in 
the  spoils  a  number  of  French  and  Dutch  colonies,  including  Malta  and  the 
Cape  Colony  in  Africa.  Thus  each  of  thegreat  powers  repaid  itself  for  its  losses. 


ii8  FROM  THE  NAPOLEONIC  WARS  TO  i83o 

In  Italy  a  variety  of  changes  were    made.      The    Pope    got    back    the 

States  of  the  Church  ;  Tuscany  was  restored  to  its  king  ;  the  same  was  the 

case  with   Naples,  King  Murat  being  driven  from   his  throne 

and  Spain6'       anc^   Put   to   death.      Piedmont,  increased  by  the    Republic  of 

Genoa,  was  restored   to  the  king  of  Sardinia.    Some  smaller 

states  were  formed,  as  Parma,  Modena,  and  Lucca.     Finally,  Lombardy  and 

Venice,  much   the  richest   regions   of  Italy,  were  given   to    Austria,   which 

country  was  made  the  dominant  power  in  the  Italian  peninsula. 

Louis  XVIII.,  the  Bourbon  king,  brother  of  Louis  XVI.,  who  had 
reigned  while  Napoleon  was  at  Elba,  came  back  to  the  throne  of  France. 
The  title  of  Louis  XVII.  was  given  to  the  poor  boy,  son  of  Louis  XVI., 
who  died  from  cruel  treatment  in  the  dungeons  of  the  Revolution.  In  Spain 
the  feeble  Ferdinand  returned  to  the  throne  which  he  had  given  up  without 
a  protest  at  the  command  of  Napoleon.  Portugal  was  given  a  monarch  of 
its  old  dynasty.  All  seemed  to  have  floated  back  into  the  old  conditions 
again. 

As  foe  the  rights  of  the  people,  what  had  become  of  them  ?  Had  they 
been  swept  away  and  the  old  wrongs  of  the  people  been  brought  back  ?  Not 
quite.  The  frenzied  enthusiasm  for  liberty  and  human  rights  of  the  past 

twenty-five  years  could  not  go  altogether  for  nothing.  The 
The  Rights  ..  ,.  rrjruj-uj  r 

of  Man  lingering    relics    of    feudalism    had  vanished,    not    only    from 

France  but  from  all  Europe,  and  no  monarch  or  congress  could 
bring  them  back  again.  In  its  place  the  principles  of  democracy  had  spread 
from  France  far  among  the  peoples  of  Europe.  The  principle  of  class 
privilege  had  been  destroyed  in  France,  and  that  of  social  equality  had 
replaced  it.  The  principle  of  the  liberty  of  the  individual,  especially  in  his 
religious  opinions,  and  the  doctrine  of  the  sovereignty  of  the  people,  had 
been  proclaimed.  These  had  still  a  battle  before  them.  They  needed  to 
fight  their  way.  Absolutism  and  the  spirit  of  feudalism  were  arrayed 
against  them.  But  they  were  too  deeply  implanted  in  the  minds  of  the 
people  to  be  eradicated,  and  their  establishment  as  actual  conditions  has 
been  the  most  important  part  of  the  political  development  of  the  nineteenth 
century. 

Revolution  was  the  one  thing  that  the  great  powers  of  Europe  feared 
and  hated  ;  this  was  the  monster  against  which  the  Congress  of  Vienna 
directed  its  efforts.  The  cause  of  quiet  and  order,  the  preservation  of  the 
established  state  of  things,  the  authority  of  rulers,  the  subordination  of 
peoples,  must  be  firmly  maintained,  and  revolutionary  disturbers  must  be  put 
down  with  a  strong  hand.  Such  was  the  political  dogma  of  the  Congress. 
And  yet,  in  spite  of  its  assembled  wisdom  and  the  principles  it  promul- 


2 

q 

(0 

Si 


JAMES  WATT— THE  FATHER  OF  THE  STEAM  ENGINE 

It  is  to  the  steam  engine  that  the  wonderful  productive  progress  of  recent  times  is  largely  due,  and 
to  the  famous  Scotch  engineer,  James  Watt,  belongs  the  honor  of  inventing  the  first 

a  separate  vessel  came  to  him  in  1765,  and  with  this  fortunate  concep- 
tion began  the  wonderful  series  of  improvements  which  have 
given    us   the   magnificent  engine  of   to-dav. 


FROM  THE  NAPOLOENIC  WARS  TO  1830  121 

gated,  the  nineteenth  century  has  been  especially  the  century  of  revolutions, 
actual  or  virtual,  the  result  being  an  extraordinary  growth  in  the  liberties 
and  prerogatives  of  the  people. 

The   plan   devised   by  the  Congress  for  the  suppression  of  revolution 
was  the  establishment  of  an  association  of  monarchs,  which  became  known 
as    the     Holy    Alliance.     Alexander    of    Russia,    Francis    of 
Austria,  and   Frederick   William   of   Prussia   formed  a  cove-      Alliance 
nant  to  rule  in  accordance  with  the  precepts  of  the  Bible,  to 
stand  by  each   other  in  a  true    fraternity,  to  rule  their    subjects  as   loving 
parents,  and  to  see  that  peace,  justice,  and  religion  should  flourish  in  their 
dominions.      An   ideal   scheme   it  was,  but  its  promulgators   soon  won   the 
name  of  hypocrites  and  the  hatred  of  those  whom  they  were  to  deal  with 
on  the  principle   of  love   and  brotherhood.      Reaction  was   the  watchword, 
absolute  sovereignty  the  purpose,  the  eradication  of  the  doctrine  of  popular 
sovereignty  the  sentiment,  which  animated  these  powerful  monarchs  ;  and 
the  Holy  Alliance  meant  practically  the  determination  to  unite  their  forces 
against  democracy  and  revolution  wherever  they  should  show  themselves. 

It  was  not  long  before   the   people   began  to  move.      The  attempt  to 
re-establish  absolute  governments  shook  them  out  of  their  sluggish  quiet. 
Revolution    lifted   its   head    again    in    the    face  of    the   Holy    Revoiution  in 
Alliance,    its   first    field    being    Spain.      Ferdinand    VII.,    on       Spain  and 
returning    to  his  throne,  had    but    one    purpose  in  his  weak      NaP'es 
mind,  which  was  to  rule  as  an  autocrat,  as  his  ancestors  had  done.      He 
swore   to   govern  according  to  a  constitution,  and  began  his  reign  with  a 
perjury.     The  patriots  had  formed  a  constitution  during  his  absence,  and 
this  he  set  aside  and  never  replaced  by  another.      On  the  contrary,  he  set 
out  to  abolish  all  the  reforms  made  by  Napoleon,  and  to  restore  the  monas- 
teries, to  bring  back  the  Inquisition,  and  to  prosecute  the  patriots.     Five 
years  of  this  reaction  made  the  state  of  affairs  in  Spain  so  intolerable  that 
the  liberals  refused  to  submit  to  it  any  longer.      In  1820  they  rose  in  revolt, 
and  the  king,  a  coward  under  all  his  show  of  bravery,  at  once  gave  way  and 
restored  the  constitution  he  had  set  aside. 

The  shock  given  the  Holy  Alliance  by  the  news  from  Spain  was  quickly 
followed  by  another  coming  from  Naples.  The  Bourbon  king  wno  had 
been  replace,d  upon  the  throne  of  that  country,  another  Ferdinand,  was  one 
of  the  most  despicable  men  of  his  not  greatly  esteemed  race.  His  govern 
ment,  while  weak,  was  harshly  oppressive.  But  it  did  not  need  a  revolution 
to  frighten  this  royal  dastard.  A  mere  general  celebration  of  the  victory 
of  the  liberals  in  Spain  was  enough,  and  in  his  alarm  he  hastened  to  give 
his  people  a  constitution  similar  to  that  which  the  Spaniards  had  gained. 


I22  FROM  THE  NAPOLEONIC  WARS  TO  1830 

These  awkward  affairs  sadly  disturbed  the  equanimity  of  those  states- 
men who  fancied  that  they  had  fully  restored  the  divine-  right  of  kings. 
Metternich,  the  Austrian  advocate  of  reaction,  hastened  to  call  a  new  Con- 
Metternich  gress,  in  1820,  and  another  in  1821.  The  question  he  put  to 
and  His  Con-  these  assemblies  was,  Should  revolution  be  permitted,  or  should 
Europe  interfere  in  Spain  and  Naples,  and  pledge  herself  to 
uphold  everywhere  the  sacred  powers  of  legitimate  monarchs  ?  His  old 
friends  of  the  Holy  Alliance  backed  him  up  in  this  suggestion,  both  Con- 
gresses adopted  it,  a  policy  of  repression  of  revolutions  became  the  pro- 
gramme, and  Austria  was  charged  to  restore  what  Metternich  called 
"order"  in  Naples. 

He  did  so.     The  liberals  of  Naples  were  far  too  weak  to  oppose  the 

power  of  Austria.      Their  government  fell  to  pieces  as  soon  as  the  Austrian 

army  appeared,  and  the  impotent  but  cruel  Ferdinand  was  made  an  absolute 

king  again.      The   radicals  in   Piedmont  started  an  insurrection  which  was 

quickly  put  down,  and  Austria  became  practically  the  lord  and  master  of  Italy. 

Proud  of  his  success,    Metternich   called  a  new    Congress   in    1822,    in 

which   it  was   resolved  to  repeat  in   Spain  what  had  been  done  in  Naples. 

How  Order  was    France  was  now  made  the   instrument  of  the  absolutists.     A 

Restored  in       French  army  marched  across  the  Pyrenees,  put  down  the  gov- 

Spam  ernment  of  the  liberals,  and  gave  the  king  back  his  despotic 

rule.    He  celebrated  his  return  to  power  by  a  series  of  cruel  executions.   The 

Holy  Alliance  was  in  the  ascendant,  the  liberals  had  been  bitterly  repaid  for 

their  daring,   terror  seized   upon  the  liberty-loving   peoples,    and    Europe 

seemed  thrown  fully  into  the  grasp  of  the  absolute  kings 

Only  in  two  regions  did  the  spirit  of  revolt  triumph  during  this  period 
of  reaction.     These  were  Greece  and  Spanish  America.     The 
in  Greece  "  *    historic  land  of  Greece  had  long  been  in   the   hands  of  a  des- 
potism with  which  even  the  Holy  Alliance  was  not  in  sympa- 
ihy — that  of  Turkey.     Its  very  name,  as  a  modern  country,  had  almost  van- 
ished, and  Europe  heard  with  astonishment  in  1821  that  the  descendants  of 
the  ancient  Greeks  had  risen  against  the  tyranny  under  which  they  had  been 
crushed  for  centuries. 

The  struggle  was  a  bitter  one.  The  sultan  was  atrocious  in  his  cruel- 
ties. In  the  island  of  Chios  alone  he  brutally  murdered  20,000  Greeks.  But 
the  spirit  of  the  old  Athenians  and  Spartans  was  in  the  people,  and  they 
kept  on  fighting  in  the  face  of  defeat.  For  four  years  this  went  on,  while 
the  powers  of  Europe  looked  on  without  raising  a  hand.  Some  of  their 
people  indeed  took  part,  among  them  Lord  Byron,  who  died  in  Greece  in 
1824  ;  but  the  governments  failed  to  warm  up  to  their  duty. 


FROM  THE  NAPOLEONIC  WARS  TO  1830  123 

Their  apathy  vanished  in  1825,  when  the  sultan,  growing  weary  of  the 
struggle,  and  bent  on  bringing  it  to  a  rapid  end,  called  in  the  aid  of  his  power- 
ful vassal,  Mehemed  Ali,  Pasha  of  Egypt.  Mehemed  responded  by  sending  a 
strong  army  under  his  son  Ibrahim,  who  landed  in  the  Morea  (the  ancient 
Peloponnesus),  where  he  treated  the  people  with  shocking  cruelty. 

A  year  of  this  was  as  much  as  Christian  Europe  could  stand.    England 
first  aroused  herself.     Canning,  the  English  prime  minister,    The  Powers 
persuaded    Nicholas,  who    had   just    succeeded  Alexander   as      Come  to  the 
Czar  of  Russia,  to  join  with  him  in  stopping  this  horrible  busi-      Rescue  of 
ness.      France    also  lent  her  aid,  and    the    combined    powers 
warned  Ibrahim  to  cease  his  cruel  work.     On  his  refusal,  the  fleets  of  Eng- 
land and  France  attacked  and  annihilated  the  Turkish-Egyptian  fleet  in  the 
battle  of  Navarino. 

The  Sultan  still  hesitated,  and  the  czar,  impatient  at  the  delay,  declared 
war  and  invaded  with  his  army  the  Turkish  provinces  on  the  Danube.  The 
next  year,  1829,  the  Russians  crossed  the  Balkans  and  descended  upon  Con- 
stantinople. That  city  was  in  such  imminent  danger  of  capture  that  the 
obstinacy  of  the  sultan  completely  disappeared  and  he  humbly  consented  to 
all  the  demands  of  the  powers.  Servia,  Moldavia  and  Wallachia,  the  chief 
provinces  of  the  Balkan  peninsula,  were  put  under  the  rule  of  Christian 
governors,  and  the  independence  of  Greece  was  fully  acknowledged.  Prince 
Otto  of  Bavaria  was  made  king,  and  ruled  until  1862.  In  Greece  lib- 
eralism had  conquered,  but  elsewhere  in  Europe  the  reaction  established  by 
the  Congress  of  Vienna  still  held  sway. 

The    people  merely   bided  their  time.     The    good   seed   sown    could 
not  fail  to  bear  fruit  in  its  season.     The  spirit  of  revolution  was  in  the  air, 
and  any  attempt  to  rob  the  people  of  the  degree  of  liberty 
which  they  enjoyed  was  very  likely  to  precipitate  a  revolt  against      Revolution 
the  tyranny  of  courts  and  kings.     It  came  at  length  in  France, 
that  country  the  ripest  among  the  nations  for  revolution.      Louis  XVIII., 
an  easy,  good-natured  old  soul,  of  kindly  disposition  towards  the  people, 
passed   from   life   in    1824,   and  was  succeeded  by  his   brother,   Count  of 
Artois,  as  Charles  X. 

The  new  king  had  been  the  head  of  the  ultra-royalist  faction,  an  advo- 
cate of  despotism  and  feudalism,  and  quickly  doubled  the  hate  which  the 
people  bore  him.  Louis  XVIII.  had  been  liberal  in  his  chariesx.  and 
policy,  and  had  given  increased  privileges  to  the  people.  His  Attempt 
Under  Charles  reaction  set  in.  A  vast  sum  of  money  was  at  Despotism 
voted  to  the  nobles  to  repay  their  losses  during  the  Revolution.  Steps 
were  taken  to  muzzle  the  press  and  gag  the  universities.  This  was 


124  FROM  THE  NAPOLEONIC  WARS  TO  1830 

more  than  the  Chamber  of  Deputies  was  willing  to  do,  and  it  was  dis- 
solved. But  the  tyrant  at  the  head  of  the  government  went  on,  blind 
to  the  signs  in  the  air,  deaf  to  the  people's  voice.  If  he  could  not  get 
laws  from  the  Chamber,  he  would  make  them  himself  in  the  old  arbitary 
fashion,  and  on  July  26,  1830,  he  issued,  under  the  advice  of  his  prime 
minister,  four  decrees,  which  limited  the  list  of  voters  and  put  an  end  to 
the  freedom  of  the  press.  Practically  the  constitution  was  set  aside,  the 
work  of  the  Revolution  ignored,  and  absolutism  re-established  in  France. 

King  Charles  had  taken  a  step  too  far.  He  did  not  know  the  spirit  of 
the  French.  In  a  moment  Paris  blazed  into  insurrection.  Tumult  arose 
on  every  side.  Workmen  and  students  paraded  the  streets  with  enthusi- 
astic cheers  for  the  constitution.  But  under  their  voices  there  were  soon 
heard  deeper  and  more  ominous  cries.  "  Down  with  the  ministers  !"  came 
the  demand.  And  then,  as  the  throng  increased  and  grew  more  violent, 
arose  the  revolutionary  slogan,  "  Down  with  the  Bourbons  !"  The  infatu- 
ated old  king  was  amusing  himself  in  his  palace  of  St.  Cloud, 
anc*  ^  not  Discover  tnat  tne  crown  was-  tottering  upon  his 
head.  He  knew  that  the  people  of  Paris  had  risen,  but 
looked  upon  it  as  a  passing  ebullition  of  French  temper.  He  did  not  awake 
to  the  true  significance  of  the  movement  until  he  heard  that  there  had  been 
fighting  between  his  troops  and  the  people,  that  many  of  the  citizens  lay 
dead  in  the  streets,  and  that  the  soldiers  had  been  driven  from  the  city, 
which  remained  in  the  hands  of  the  insurrectionists. 

Then  the  old  imbecile,  who  had  fondly  fancied  that  the  Revolution  of 
1789  could  be  set  aside  by  a  stroke  of  his  pen,  made  frantic  efforts  to  lay 
the  demon  he  had  called  into  life.  He  hastily  cancelled  the  tyrannical 
decrees.  Finding  that  this  would  not  have  the  desired  effect,  he  abdicated 
the  throne  in  favor  of  his  grandson.  But  all  was  of  no  avail.  France  had 
had  enough  of  him  and  his  house.  His  envoys  were  turned  back  from  the 
gates  of  Paris  unheard.  Remembering  the  fate  of  Louis  XVI.,  his  unhappy 
brother,  Charles  X.,  turned  his  back  upon  France  and  hastened  to  seek  a 
refuge  in  England. 

Meanwhile  a  meeting  of  prominent  citizens  had  been  held  in  Paris,  the 

result  of  their  deliberations  being  that  Charles  X.  and  his  heirs  should  be 

deposed  and  the  crown  offered  to  Louis  Philippe,  duke  of  Orleans.     There 

Louis  Philippe     na<^  been  a  Louis  Philippe  in  the  Revolution  of  1789,  a  radical 

Chosen  as         member  of  the  royal  house  of  Bourbon,  who,  under  the  title 

of  Egalite,  had  joined  the  revolutionists,  voted  for  the  death 

of  Louis  XVI.,  and  in  the  end  had  his  own  head  cut  off  by  the  guillotine. 

His  son  as  a  young  man  had  served  in  the  revolutionary  army  and  had 


FROM  THE  NAPOLEONIC  WARS  TO  1830  125 

been  one  of  its  leaders  in  the  important  victory  of  Jemappes.  But  when 
the  terror  came  he  hastened  from  France,  which  had  become  a  very  unsafe 
place  for  one  of  his  blood.  He  had  the  reputation  of  being  liberal  in  his  views, 
and  was  the  first  man  thought  of  for  the  vacant  crown.  When  the  Chamber 
of  Deputies  met  in  August  and  offered  it  to  him,  he  did  not  hesitate  to 
accept.  He  swore  to.  observe  and  reign  under  the  constitution,  and  took 
the  throne  under  the  title  of  Louis  Philippe,  king  of  the  French.  Thus 
speedily  and  happily  ended  the  second  Revolution  in  France. 

But  Paris  again  proved  itself  the  political  centre  of  Europe.  The 
deposition  of  Charles  X.  was  like  a  stone  thrown  into  the  seething  waters 
of  European  politics,  and  its  effects  spread  far  and  wide  be-  Effect  in  Europe 
yond  the  borders  of  France.  The  nations  had  been  bound  of  the  Revo= 
hand  and  foot  by  the  Congress  of  Vienna.  The  people  had  utl° 
writhed  uneasily  in  their  fetters,  but  now  in  more  than  one  locality  they  rose 
in  their  might  to  break  them,  here  demanding  a  greater  degree  of  liberty, 
there  overthrowing  the  government. 

The  latter  was  the  case  in  Belgium.  Its  people  had  suffered  severely 
from  the  work  of  the  Congress  of  Vienna.  Without  even  a  pretence  of 
consulting  their  wishes,  their  country  had  been  incorporated  with  Holland 
as  the  kingdom  of  the  Netherlands,  the  two  countries  being  fused  into  one 
under  a  king  of  the  old  Dutch  House  of  Orange.  The  idea  was  good 
enough  in  itself.  It  was  intended  to  make  a  kingdom  strong  enough  to 
help  keep  France  in  order.  But  an  attempt  to  fuse  these  two  stages  was  like 
an  endeavor  to  mix  oil  and  water.  The  people  of  the  two  countries  had  long 
since  drifted  apart  from  each  other,  and  had  irreconcilable  ideas  and  inter- 
ests. Holland  was  a  colonizing  and  commercial  country,  Belgium  an  indus- 
trial country  ;  Holland  was  Protestant,  Belgium  was  Catholic  ;  Holland  was 
Teutonic  in  blood,  Belgium  was  a  mixture  of  the  Teutonic  and  French, 
but  wholly  French  in  feeling  and  customs. 

The    Belgians,   therefore,  were  generally  discontented  with  the  act  of 
fusion,  and  in  1830  they  imitated  the  French  by  a  revolt  against   The  Belgian 
King  William  of  Holland.     A   tumult   followed    in   Brussels,       Uprising  and 
which  ended  in  the  Dutch  soldiers  being  driven  from  the  city. 
King  William,  finding  that   the  Belgians  insisted  on  independence,  decided 
to  bring  them  .back   to  their  allegiance   by  force  of  arms.     The  powers  of 
Europe  now  took  the  matter  in  hand,  and,  after  some  difference  of  opinion, 
decided  to  grant  the  Belgians  the  independence  they  demanded.    This  was  a 
meddling  with  his  royal  authority  to  which  King  William  did  not  propose  to 
submit,  but  when   the  navy  of  Great  Britain  and  the  army  of  France  ap- 
proached his  borders  he  changed  his  mind,  and  since  1833  Holland  and  Bel- 


126  FROM  THE  NAPOLEONIC  WARS  TO  1830 

gium  have  gone  their  own  way  under  separate  kings.  A  limited  monarchy, 
with  a  suitable  constitution,  was  organized  for  Belgium  by  the  powers,  and 
Prince  Leopold,  of  the  German  house  of  Saxe-Coburg,  was  placed  upon  the 
throne. 

The  Movements  The    spirit    of    revolution    extended    into    Germany  and 

in  Germany       Italy,  but  only  with  partial   results.      Neither  in  Austria   nor 

and  Italy  Prussia  did  the  people  stir,  but  in  many  of  the   smaller  states 

a  demand  was  made  for  a  constitution  on  liberal  lines,  and  in  every  instance 

the  princes  had  to  give  way.      Each  of  these   states  gained  a  representative 

form  of  government;  the  monarchs  of  Prussia  and  Austria  alone   retaining 

their  old  despotic  power. 

In  Italy  there  were  many  signs  of  revolutionary  feeling ;  but  Austria 
still  dominated  that  peninsula,  and  Metternich  kept  .a  close  watch  upon  the 
movements  of  its  people.  There  was  much  agitation.  The  great  secret 
society  of  the  Carbonari  sought  to  combine  the  patriots  of  all  Italy  in  a 
grand  stroke  for  liberty  and  union,  but  nothing  came  of  their  efforts.  In 
the  States  of  the  Church  alone  the  people  rose  in  revolt  against  their  rulers, 
but  they  were  soon  put  down  by  the  Austrians,  who  invaded  their  territory, 
dispersed  their  weak  bands,  and  restored  the  old  tyranny.  The  hatred  of  the 
Italians  for  the  Austrians  grew  more  intense,  but  their  time  had  not  yet 
come;  they  sank  back  in  submission  and  awaited  a  leader  and  an  opportunity. 

There  was  one  country  in  which  the  revolution  in  France  called  forth  a 
more  active  response,  though,  unhappily,  only  to  double  the  weight  of  the 

chains  under  which  its  people  groaned.  This  was  unfortunate 
The  Condition  ^,11  iji-i  v  i 

of  Poland          Poland  ;  once  a  great  and   proud  kingdom,  now  dismembered 

and  swallowed  up  by  the  land-greed  of  its  powerful  neighbors. 
It  had  been  in  part  restored  by  Napoleon,  in  his  kingdom  of  Warsaw,  and 
his  work  had  been  in  a  measure  recognized  by  the  Congress  of  Vienna.  The 
Czar  Alexander,  kindly  in  disposition  and  moved  by  pity  for  the  unhappy 
Poles,  had  re-established  their  old  kingdom,  persuading  Austria  and  Prussia 
to  give  up  the  bulk  of  their  Polish  territory  in  return  for  equal  areas  else- 
where. He  gave  Poland  a  constitution,  its  own  army,  and  its  own  adminis- 
tration, making  himself  its  king,  but  promising  to  rule  as  a  constitutional 
monarch. 

This  did  not  satisfy  the  Poles.  It  was  not  the  independence  they 
craved.  They  could  not  forget  that  they  had  been  a  great  power  in  Europe 

when  Russia  was  still  the  weak  and  frozen  duchy  of  Muscovy. 
the  Poles          When  the  warm-hearted  Alexander  died  and  the  cold-hearted 

Nicholas  took  his  place,  their  discontent  grew  to  dangerous 
proportions.  The  news  of  the  outbreak  in  France  was  like  a  firebrand 


FROM  THE  NAPOLEONIC  WARS  TO  1830  127 

thrown  in  their  midst.      In  November,  1830,  a  few  young  hot-heads  sounded 
the  note  of  revolt,  and  Warsaw  rose  in  insurrection  against  the  Russians. 

For  a  time  they  were  successful.  Constantine,  the  czars  brother 
governor  of  Poland,  was  scared  by  the  riot,  and  deserted  the  capital, 
leaving  the  revolutionists  in  full  control.  Towards  the  frontier  he  hastened, 
winged  by  alarm,  while  the  provinces  rose  in  rebellion  behind  him  as  he 
passed.  Less  than  a  week  had  passed  before  the  Russian  power  was  with- 
drawn from  Poland,  and  its  people  were  once  more  lords  of  their  own  land. 
They  set  up  a  provisional  government  in  Warsaw,  and  prepared  to  defend 
themselves  against  the  armies  that  were  sure  to  come. 

What  was  needed  now  was  unity.     A  single  fixed  and  resolute  purpose, 
under  able  and  suitable  leaders,  formed  the  only  conceivable  condition  of 
success.      But  Poland  was,  of  all  countries,  the  least  capable 
of  such  unity.     The  landed  nobility  was  full  of  its  old  feudal      of  unjty 
notions ;  the  democracy  of  the  city  was  inspired  by  modern 
sentiments.      They  could  not  agree  ;   they    quarreled    in  castle  and    court, 
while  their  hasty  levies  of  troops  were   marching  to  meet  the  Russians  in 
the  field.      Under  such  conditions  success  was  a  thing  beyond  hope. 

Yet  the  Poles  fought  well.  Kosciusko,  their  former  hero,  would  have 
been  proud  of  their  courage  and  willingness  to  die  for  their  country.  But 
against  the  powerful  and  ably  led  Russian  armies  their  gallantry  was  of  no 
avail,  and  their  lack  of  unity  fatal.  In  May,  1831,  they  were  overwhelmed 
at  Ostrolenka  by  the  Russian  hosts.  In  September  a  traitor  betrayed 
Warsaw,  and  the  Russian  army  entered  its  gates.  The  revolt  was  at  an 
end,  and  Poland  again  in  fetters. 

Nicholas  the  Czar  fancied  that  he  had  spoiled  these  people  by  kindness 
and  clemency.     They  should  not  be  spoiled  in  that  way  any  longer.      Under 
his   harsh    decrees    the   Kingdom   of    Poland    vanished.      He 
ordered  that  it  should  be  made  a  Russian  province,  and  held      Poland 
by  a  Russian  army  of  occupation.     The  very  language  of  the 
Poles  was  forbidden  to  be  spoken,  and  their  religion  was  to  be  replaced  by 
the  Orthodox  Russian   faith.     Those  brief  months  of  revolution  and  inde- 
pendence were  fatal  to  the  liberty-loving  people.     Since  then,  except  during 
their  brief  revolt  in   1863,  they  have  lain  in  fetters  at  the   feet  of  Russia, 
nothing  remaining  to  them  but  their  patriotic  memories  and  their  undying 
aspiration  for  freedom  and  independence. 


CHAPTER  VII. 
Bolivar,  the  Liberator  of  Spanish  America. 

IN  the  preceding  chapter  mention  was  made  of  two  regions  in  which  the 
spirit  of  revolt  triumphed  during  the  period  of  reaction  after  the  Napo« 
Iconic  wars — Greece  and  Spanish  America.     The  revolt  in  Greece  was 
there  described  ;  that  in  Spanish  America  awaits   description.      It  had  its 
hero,   one  of  the  great  soldiers  of  the  Spanish  race,  perhaps  the  greatest 
and  ablest  of  guerilla  leaders  ;  "  Bolivar  the  Liberator,"  as  he  was  known  on 
his  native  soil. 

Spain  had  long  treated  her  colonists  in  a  manner  that  was  difficult  for  a 
How  Spain  high-spirited  people  to   endure.      Only  two   thoughts  seemed 

Treated  Her  to  rule  in  their  management,  the  one  being  to  derive  from  the 
colonies  all  possible  profit  for  the  government  at  home,  the 
other  to  make  use  of  them  as  a  means  by  which  the  leaders  in  Spain  could 
pay  their  political  debts.  The  former  purpose  was  sought  to  be  carried  out 
by  severe  taxation,  commercial  restriction,  and  the  other  methods  in  which 
a  short-sighted  country  seeks  to  enrich  itself  by  tying  the  hands  and  check- 
ing the  industries  of  its  colonists.  To  achieve  the  latter  purpose  all  im- 
portant official  positions  in  the  colonies  were  held  by  natives  of  Spain. 
Posts  in  the  government,  in  the  customs,  in  all  salaried  offices  were  given 
to  strangers,  who  knew  nothing  of  the  work  they  were  to  do  or  the  con- 
ditions of  the  country  to  which  they  were  sent,  and  whose  single  thought 
was  to  fill  their  purses  as  speedily  as  possible  and  return  to  enjoy  their 
wealth  in  Spain. 

All   this  was  galling  to  the   colonists,  who  claimed  to  be  loyal  Span- 
iards ;    and    they    rebelled    in    spirit     against    this    swarm    of 
of  the  Peo '^e     ^uman  locusts  which  descended  annually  upon  them,  practic- 
ing every  species  of  extortion  and  fraud  in  their  eagerness  to 
grow  rich  speedily,  and  carrying  'much   of  the  wealth  of  the  country  back 
to  the  mother  land.      Add  to  this  the  severe  restrictions  on  industry  and 
commerce,    the   prohibition   of   trade   except   with    Spain,  the  exactions  of 
every  kind,  legal  and  illegal,  to  which  the  people  were  forced  to  submit,  and 
their  deep-seated  dissatisfaction  is  easy  to  understand. 


GREAT 
ENGLISH 
HISTORIANS 


PROSE  WRIT  ERS 


BOLIVAR,  THE  LIBERATOR  OF  SPANISH  AMERICA  131 

The  war  for  independence  in  the  United  States  had  no  apparent 
influence  upon  the  colonies  of  Spanish  America.  They  remained  loyal  to 
Spain.  The  French  Revolution  seemed  also  without  effect.  But  during 
the  long  Napoleonic  wars,  when  Spain  remained  for  years  in  the  grip  of  the 
Corsican,  and  the  people  of  Spanish  America  were  left  largely  to  govern 
themselves,  a  thirst  for  liberty  arose,  and  a  spirit  of  revolt  showed  itself 
about  1810  throughout  the  length  and  breadth  of  the  colonies. 

Chief  among  the  revolutionists  was  Simon  Bolivar,  a  native  of  Caracas, 
the  capital  of  Venezuela.      In    1810  we  find  him  in  London,    Bolivar,  the 
seeking  the   aid   of  the    British   government   in  favor  of  the      Revolutionary 
rebels    against    Spain.      In    1811    he    served    as  governor  of     Leader 
Puerto  Cabello,  the  strongest  fortress  in  Venezuela.      He  was  at  that  time 
subordinate  to  General  Miranda,  whom  he  afterwards  accused  of  treason, 
and  who  died  in  a  dungeon   in  Spain.      In  the  year  named  Venezuela  pro- 
claimed its  independence,  but  in  1813,   Bolivar,  who  had  been  entitled  its 
"  Liberator,"   was    a   refugee   in   Jamaica,   and   his    country  again   a  vassal 
of  Spain. 

The  leaders  of  affairs  in  Spain  knew  well  where  to  seek  the  backbone 
of  the  insurrection.  Bolivar  was  the  one  man  whom  they  feared.  He 
removed,  there  was  not  a  man  in  sight  capable  of  leading  the  rebels  to 
victory.  To  dispose  of  him,  a  spy  was  sent  to  Jamaica,  his 
purpose  being  to  take  the  Liberator's  life.  This  man,  after 
gaining  a  knowledge  of  Bolivar's  habits  and  movements, 
bribed  a  negro  to  murder  him,  and  in  the  dead  of  night  the  assassin  stole  up 
to  Bolivar's  hammock  and  plunged  his  knife  into  the  sleeper's  breast.  As 
it  proved,  it  was  not  Bolivar,  but  his  secretary,  who  lay  there,  and  the  hope 
of  the  American  insurrectionists  escaped. 

Leaving  Jamaica,  Bolivar  proceeded  to  San  Domingo,  where  he  found 
a  warm  supporter  in  the  president,  Petion.      Here,  too,  he  met  Luis  Brion, 
a  Dutch  shipbuilder  of  great  wealth.      His  zeal  for  the  principles  of  liberty 
infused  Brion  with  a  like  zeal.     The  result  was  that  Brion   fitted  out  seven 
schooners  and  placed  them  at  Bolivar's  disposal,  supplied  3,500  muskets  to 
arm  recruits  who  should  join  Bolivar's   standard,  and  devoted  his  own  life 
and  services  to  the  sacred  cause.     Thus  slenderly  equipped,  Bolivar  com- 
menced  operations  in   1816  at  the  port  of  Cayos  de  San   Luis,  where  the 
leading  refugees  from  Cartagena,  New  Granada,  and  Venezuela    Bolivar  Re- 
had  sought  sanctuary.      By  them  he  was  accepted  as  leader,      turns  to 
and  Brion,  with  the  title  of  ''Admiral  of  Venezuela,"  was  given       Venezuela 
command  of  the  squadron  he  had  himself  furnished.     The  growing  expedi- 
tion now  made  for  the  island  of  Margarita,  which  Arismendi  had  wrested 


r32  BOLIVAR,   THE  LIBERATOR  OF  SPANISH  AMERICA 

from  the  Spanish  governor;  and  here,  at  a  convention  of  officers,  Bolivar 
was  named  "Supreme  Chief,"  and  the  third  Venezuelan  war  began.  It 
was  marked  by  many  a  disaster  to  the  patriot  arms,  and  so  numerous 
vicissitudes  that,  until  the  culminating  triumph  of  Boyaca  on  August  /th, 
1819,  it  remained  doubtful  upon  which  side  victory  would  ultimately  rest. 

The  war  was  conducted  on  the  part  of  the  Spaniards  with  the  most 
fiendish  cruelty,  prisoners  taken  in  war  and  the  unarmed  people  of  the 
country  alike  being  tortured  and  murdered- under  circumstances  of  revolting 
barbarity.  "The  people  of  Margarita,"  writes  an  English  officer  who 
served  in  Venezuela,  "  saw  their  liberties  threatened  and  endangered ;  their 
The  Savage  wives,  children,  and  kindred  daily  butchered  and  murdered; 
Cruelty  of  the  and  the  reeking  members  of  beings  most  dear  to  them 
exposed  to  their  gaze  on  every  tree  and  crag  of  their  native 
forests  and  mountains ;  nor  was  it  until  hundreds  had  been  thus  slaughtered 
that  they  pursued  the  same  course.  The  result  was  that  the  Spaniards 
were  routed.  I  myself  saw  upwards  of  seven  thousand  of  their  skulls, 
dried  and  heaped  together  in  one  place,  which  is  not  inaptly  termed 
'  Golgotha,'  as  a  trophy  of  victory." 

Another  writer  tells  us :  "I  saw  several  women  whose  ears  and  noses 
had  been  cut  off,  their  eyes  torn  from  their  sockets,  their  tongues  cut  out, 
and  the  soles  of  their  feet  pared  by  the  orders  of  Monteverde,  a  Spanish 
brigadier-general.1*  The  resuk  of  these  excesses  of  cruelty  was  an  implacable 
hatred  of  the  Spaniard,  and  a  determination  to  carry  on  the  war  unto  death. 

In  1815  Ferdinand  of  Spain  determined  to  put  an  end  once  for  #11  to 
the  movement  for  independence  that,  in  varying  forms,  had  been  agitating 
for  five  years  the  whole  of  Spanish  America.  Accordingly,  strong  rein- 
forcements to  the  royalist  armies  were  sent  out,  under  General  Morillo. 
These  arrived  at  Puerto  Cabello,  and,  besides  ships  of  war,  comprised  12,000 
troops — a  force  in  itself  many  times  larger  than  ,all  the  scattered  bands  of 
patriots  then  under  arms  put  together.  Morillo  soon  had  Venezuela  under 
his  thumb,  and,  planting  garrisons  throughout  it,  proceeded  to  lay  siege  to 
The  Methods  Cartagena.  Capturing  this  city  in  four  months,  he  marched 
of  General  unopposed  to  Santa  Fe  de  Bogota,  the  capital  of  New 
Granada,  ruin  and  devastation  marking  his  progress.  In  a 
despatch  to  Ferdinand,  which  was  intercepted,  he  wrote  :  "  Every  person  of 
either  sex  who  was  capable  of  reading  and  writing  was  put  to  death.  By 
thus  cutting  off  all  who  were  in  any  way  educated,  I  hoped  to  effectually 
arrest  the  spirit  of  revolution." 

An  insight  into  Morillo's  methods  of  coping  with  the  "  spirit  of  revo- 
lution "  is  furnished  by  his  treatment  of  those  he  found  in  the  opulent  city 


BOLIVAR,  THE  LIBERATOR  OF  SPANISH  AMERICA  133 

of  Maturin  on  its  capture.  Dissatisfied  with  the  treasure  he  found  there,  he 
suspected  the  people  of  wealth  to  have  anticipated  his  arrival  by  burying 
their  property.  To  find  out  the  supposed  buried  treasure,  he  had  all  those 
whom  he  regarded  as  likely  to  know  where  it  was  hidden  collected  together, 
and,  to  make  them  confess,  had  the  soles  of  their  feet  cut  off,  and  then  had 
them  driven  over  hot  sand.  Many  of  the  victims  of  this  horrid  piece  of 
cruelty  survived,  and  were  subsequently  seen  by  those  that  have  narrated  it 

At  the  commencement  of  the  war,  with  the  exception  of  the  little  band 
on  the  island  of  Margarita,  the  patriotic  cause  was  represented  by  a  few 
scattered  groups  along  the  banks  of  the  Orinoco,  on  the  plains  of  Barcelona 
and  of  Casanare.  These  groups  pursued  a  kind  of  guerilla  warfare,  quite 
independently  of  one  another,  and  without  any  plan  to  achieve.  They  were 
kept  together  by  the  fact  that  submission  meant  death.  The  leader  of  one 
of  these  groups,  Paez  by  name,  presents  one  of  the  most  pic-  Pae2,  the  Quer. 
turesque  and  striking  characters  that  history  has  produced.  HlaandHis 
He  was  a  Llanero,  or  native  of  the  elevated  plains  of  Barinas,  Exploits 
and  quite  illiterate.  As  owner  of  herds  of  half-wild  cattle,  he  became  chief 
of  a  band  of  herdsmen,  which  he  organized  into  an  army,  known  as  the 
"  Guides  of  the  Apure/'  a  tributary  of  the  Orinoco,  and  whose  banks  wen 
the  base  of  Paez's  operations.  Only  one  of  his  many  daring  exploits  can  be 
here  recorded.  That  occurred  on  the  3rd  of  June,  1819,  when  Paez  was 
opposing  the  advance  of  Morillo  himself.  With  150  picked  horsemen,  he 
swam  the  river  Orinoco  and  galloped  towards  the  Spanish  camp.  "Eight 
hundred  of  the  royalist  cavalry,"  writes  W.  Pilling,  General  Mitre's  trans- 
lator, "with  two  small  guns,  sallied  out  to  meet  him.  He  slowly  retreated, 
drawing  them  on  to  a  place  called  Las  Queseras  del  Medio,  where  a  bat- 
talion of  infantry  lay  in  ambush  by  the  river.  Then,  splitting  his  men  into 
groups  of  twenty,  he  charged  the  enemy  on  all  sides,  forcing  them  under 
the  fire  of  the  infantry,  and  recrossed  the  river  with  two  killed  and  a  few 
wounded,  leaving  the  plain  strewn  with  the  dead  of  the  enemy." 

While  Paez's  dashing  exploits  were  inspiring  the  revolutionary  leaders 
with  fresh  courage,  which  enabled  them  at  least  to  hold  their  own,  a  system 
of  enlisting  volunteers  was  instituted  in  London  by  Don  Luis  Lopes 
Mendez,  representative  of  the  republic.  The  Napoleonic  wars  being  over, 
the  European  ^powers  were  unable  to  reduce  their  swollen  armaments,  and 
English  and  German  officers  entered  into  contracts  with  Mendez  to  take  out 
to  Venezuela  organized  corps  of  artillery,  lancers,  hussars,  and  rifles.  On 
enlisting,  soldiers  received  a  bounty  of  £20  ;  their  pay  was  2s.  a  day  and 
rations,  and  at  the  end  of  the  war  they  were  promised  ^125  and  an  allot- 
ment of  land.  The  first  expedition  to  leave  England  comprised  120  hussars 


I34  BOLIVAR,  THE  LIBERATOR  OF  SPANISH  AMERICA 

and  lancers,  under  Colonel  Hippisley;  this  body  became  the  basis  of  a  corps 
of  regular  cavalry.     The  nucleus  of  a  battalion  of  riflemen  was  taken  out 
British  Soldiers   ^Y  Colonel  Campbell  ;  and  a  subaltern,   named  Gilmour,  with 
Join  the  in»       the  title  of  colonel,  formed  with  90  men  the  basis  of  a  brigade 
surgents  Qf  artiuerv>   General  English,  who  had  served  in  the  Peninsular 

War  under  Wellington,  contracted  with  Mendez  to  take  out  a  force  of  1,200 
Englishmen  ;  500  more  went  out  under  Colonel  Elsom,  who  also  brought 
out  300  Germans  under  Colonel  Uzlar.  General  MacGregor  took  800,  and 
General  Devereux  took  out  the  Irish  Legion,  in  which  was  a  son  of  the 
Irish  tribune,  Daniel  O'Connell.  Smaller  contingents  also  went  to  the  seat 
of  war ;  these  mentioned,  however,  were  the  chief,  and  without  their  aid 
Bolivar  was  wont  to  confess  that  he  would  have  failed. 

Now  it  was  that  a  brilliant  idea  occurred  to  Bolivar.  He  had  already 
sent  1,200  muskets  and  a  group  of  officers  to  General  Santander,  who  was 
the  leader  of  the  patriots  on  the  plains  of  Casanare.  This  enabled  Sant- 
ander to  increase  his  forces  from  amongst  the  scattered  patriots  in  that 
neighborhood.  He  thereupon  began  to  threaten  the  frontier  of  New 
Granada,  with  the  result  that  General  Barreiro,  who  had  been  left  in  com- 
mand of  that  province  by  Morillo,  deemed  it  advisable  to  march  against  him 
and  crush  his  growing  power.  Santander's  forces,  however,  though  inferior 
in  number,  were  too  full  of  enthusiasm  for  Barreiro's  soldiers — reduced  to 
a  half-hearted  condition  from  being  forced  to  take  part  in  cruelties  that  they 
gained  nothing  from,  except  the  odium  of  the  people  they  moved  amongst 
Bolivar's  Plan  Barreiro,  accordingly,  was  driven  back ;  and,  on  receiving  the 
to  Invade  news  of  Santander's  success,  Bolivar  at  once  formed  the  con- 
New  Granada  ceptjon  of  crossing  the  Andes  and  driving  the  Spaniards  out 
of  New  Granada.  The  event  proved  that  this  was  the  true  plan  of  cam- 
paign for  the  patriots.  Already  they  had  lost  three  campaigns  through  en- 
deavoring to  dislodge  the  Spaniards  from  their  strongest  positions,  which 
were  in  Venezuela;  now,  by  gaining  New  Granada,  they  would  win  prestige 
and  consolidate  their  power  there  for  whatever  further  efforts  circumstances 
|  might  demand. 

Thus,  as  it  has  been  described,  did  the  veil  drop  from  Bolivar's  eyes ; 
and  so  confident  was  he  of  ultimate  success,  that  he  issued  to  the  people  of 
New  Granada  this  proclamation  :  "  The  day  of  America  has  come ;  no 
human  power  can  stay  the  course  of  Nature  guided  by  Providence.  Before 
the  sun  has  again  run  his  annual  course,  altars  to  yiberty  will  arise  through- 
out your  land." 

Bolivar  immediately  prepared  to  carry  out  his  idea,  and  on  the  nth  of 
June,  1819,  he  joined  Santander  at  the  foot  of  the  Andes,  bringing  with 


BOLIVAR,  THE  LIBERATOR  OF  SPANISH  AMERICA  135 

him  four  battalions  of  infantry,  of  which  one  —  the  "Albion  "  —  was  composed 
entirely  of  English  soldiers  —  two  squadrons  of  lancers,  one  of  carabineers, 
and  a  regiment  called  the  "  Guides  of  the  Apure,"  part  of  which  were  Eng- 
lish —  in  all  2,500  men.  To  join  Santander  was  no  easy  task,  for  it  involved 
the  crossing  of  an  immense  plain  covered  with  water  at  this  season  of  the 
year,  and  the  swimming  of  seven  deep  rivers  —  war  materials,  of  course, 
having  to  be  taken  along  as  well.  This,  however,  was  only  a  foretaste  of 
the  still  greater  difficulties  that  lay  before  the  venturesome  band. 

General  Santander  led  the  van  with  his  Casanare  troops,  and  entered 
the    mountain    defiles  by  a  road    leading  to  the    centre  of  the    province    of 
Tunja,  which  was  held  by  Colonel  Barreiro  with  2,000  infantry 
and  400   horse.     The    royalists    had   also  a  reserve    of  1,000      Of  the^ndes 
troops  at  Bogota,  the  capital  of  New  Granada  ;  at  Cartagena, 
and  in  the  valley  of  Cauca  were  other  detachments,  and   there  was  another 
royalist  army  at  Quito.      Bolivar,  however,  trusted  to   surprise   and   to   the 
support  of  the  inhabitants  to  overcome  the  odds  that  were  against  him.    As 
the  invading  army  left  the  plains  for  the  mountains  the  scene  changed.   The 
snowy  peaks  of  the  eastern   range  of  the   Cordillera  appeared  in  the   dis- 
tance, while,  instead  of  the   peaceful  lake  through  which   they  had  waded, 
they  were  met  by  great  masses  of  water  tumbling   from  the  heights.     The 
roads  ran  along  the  edge  of  precipices  and  were  bordered  by  gigantic  trees, 
upon  whose  tops  rested  the  clouds,  which  dissolved   themselves  in  incessant 
rain.     After  four  days'  march  the  horses  were  foundered  ;  an   entire   squad- 
ron of  Llaneros  deserted  on  finding  themselves  on  foot.    The  torrents  were 
crossed  on  narrow  trembling  bridges  formed  of  trunks  of  trees,  or  by  means 
of  the  aerial  "  taravitas."*     Where  they  were  fordable,  the   current  was  so 
strong  that   the   infantry  had   to  pass  two   by  two  with  their  arms  thrown 
round  each  other's  shoulders  ;  and  woe  to  him  who  lost  his  footing  —  he  lost 
his  life  too.    Bolivar  frequently  passed  and  re-passed  these  torrents  on  horse 
back,  carrying  behind  him  the   sick  and  weakly,  or  the  women  who  accom- 
panied his  men. 

The  temperature  was  moist  and  warm;  life  was  supportable  with  the  aid 
'of  a  little  firewood  ;  but  as  they  ascended  the  mountain  the  scene  changed 
again.  Immense  rocks  piled  one  upon  another,  and  hills  of  snow,  bounded 
the  view  on  every  side  ;  below  lay  the  clouds,  veiling  the  depths  of  the 
abyss  ;  an  ice-cold  wind  cut  through  the  stoutest  clothing.  At  these  heights 
no  other  noise  is  heard  save  that  of  the  roaring  torrents  left  behind,  and  the 


*  Bridges  made  of  several  thongs  of  hide  twisted  Into  a.  stout  tope  well  gteased  and  secured  to  trees  on  opposite  ba 
the  rope  is  suspended  a  cradle  or  hammock  to  hold  two,  and  drawn  backwards  and  forwards  by  lotig  Hues.  Horses  mid  tu 
alse  thus  convoyed,  suspended  by  long  girths  round  their  todies. 


banks.    On 
uiot  were 


I36  BOLIVAR,  THE  LIBERATOR  OP  SPANISH  AMERICA 

scream  of  the  condor  circling  round  the  snowy  peaks  above.  Vegetation 
disappears ;  only  lichens  are  to  be  seen  clinging  to  the  rock,  and  a  tall  plant, 
bearing  plumes  instead  of  leaves,  and  crowned  with  yellow  flowers,  resembling 
a  funeral  torch.  To  make  the  scene  more  dreary  yet,  the  path  was  marked 
out  by  crosses  erected  in  memory  of  travellers  who  had  perished  by  the 
way. 

On  entering  this  glacial  region  the  provisions  gave  out ;  the  cattle  they 
had  brought  with  them  as  their  chief  resource  could  go  no  farther.  They 
reached  the  summit  by  the  Paya  pass,  where  a  battalion  could  hold  an  army 
in  check.  It  was  held  by  an  outpost  of  300  men,  who  were  dislodged  by 
the  vanguard  under  Santander  without  much  difficulty. 

The  Terror  of  Now    the  men   began   to  murmur,   and  Bolivar   called  a 

theMoun-        council  of  war,  to  which  he  showed  that   still   greater  difficul- 
ties lay  before   them,  and   asked   if  they  would  persevere-  or 
return.     All  were  of  opinion  that  they  should  go  on,  a  decision  which  infused 
fresh  spirit  into  the  weary  troops. 

In  this  passage  more  than  one  hundred  men  died  of  cold,  fifty  of  whom 
were  Englishmen  ;  no  horse  had  survived.  It  was  necessary  to  leave  the 
spare  arms,  and  even  some  of  those  that  were  carried  by  the  soldiers.  It 
was  a  mere  skeleton  of  an  army  which  reached  the  beautiful  valley  of  Saga- 
rnoso,  in  the  heart  of  the  province  of  Tunja,  on  the  6th  of  July,  1819 
From  this  point  Bolivar  sent  back  assistance  to  the  stragglers  left  behind, 
collected  horses,  and  detached  parties  to  scour  the  country  around  and 
communicate  with  some  few  guerillas  who  still  roamed  about. 

Meanwhile,  Barreiro  was  still  in  ignorance  of  Bolivar's  arrival.  Indeed, 
he  had  supposed  the  passage  of  the  Cordillera  at  that  season  impossible. 
As  soon,  however,  as  he  did  learn  of  his  enemy's  proximity,  he  collected  his 
forces  and  took  possession  of  the  heights  above  the  plains  of  Vargas,  thus 
interposing  between  the  patriots  and  the  town  of  Tunja,  which,  being  at- 
tached to  the  independent  cause,  Bolivar  was  anxious  to  enter.  The  oppos- 
ing armies  met  on  the  25th  of  July,  and  engaged  in  battle  for  five  hours. 
The  patriots  won,  chiefly  through  the  English  infantry,  led  by  Colonel 
James  Rooke,  who  was  himself  wounded  and  had  an  arm  shot  off.  Still, 
the  action  had  been  indecisive,  and  the  royalist  power  remained  unbroken. 
Bolivar's  Meth-  Bolivar  npw  deceived  Barreiro  by  retreating  in  the  daytime, 
ods  of  Fight-  rapidly  counter-marching,  and  passing  the  royalist  army  in  the 
dark  through  by-roads.  On  August  5th  he  captured  Tunj\ 
where  he  found  an  abundance  of  war  material,  and  by  holding  which  he  cut 
Barreiro's  communication  with  Bogota,  the  capital.  It  was  in  rapid  movements 
like  these  that  the  strength  of  Bolivar's  generalship  lay.  Freed  from  the 


BOLIVAR,   THE  LIBERATOR  OF  SPANISH  AMERICA  137 

shackles  of  military  routine  that  enslaved  the  Spanish  officers,  he  astonished 
them  by  forced  marches  over  roads  previously  deemed  impracticable  to  a 
regular  army.  While  they  were  manoeuvring,  hesitating,  calculating,  guard- 
ing the  customary  avenues  of  approach,  he  surprised  them  by  concentrating 
a  superior  force  upon  a  point  where  they  least  expected  an  attack,  threw 
them  into  confusion,  and  cut  up  their  troops  in  detail.  Thus  it  happens 
that  Bolivar's  actions  in  the  field  do  not  lend  themselves  to  the  same  im- 
pressive exposition  as  do  those  of  less  notable  generals. 

Barreiro,  rinding  himself  shut  out  from  Tunja,  fell  back  upon  Venta 
Ouemada,  where  a  general  action  took  place.  The  country  was  mountain- 
ous and  woody,  and  well  suited  to  Bolivar's  characteristic  tactics.  He  placed 
a  large  part  of  his  troops  in  ambush,  got  his  cavalry  in  the  enemy's  rear,  and 
presented  only  a  small  front.  This  the  enemy  attacked  furiously,  and  with 
apparent  success.  It  was  only  a  stratagem,  however,  for  as  they  drove  back 
Bolivar's  front,  the  troops  in  ambush  sallied  forth  and  attacked  them  in  the 
flanks,  while  the  cavalry  attacked  them  in  the  rear.  Thus  were  the  Span- 
iards surrounded.  General  Barreiro  was  taken  prisoner  on  the  field  of  battle. 
On  finding  his  capture  to  be  inevitable,  he  threw  away  his  sword  that  he 
might  not  have  the  mortification  of  surrendering  it  to  Bolivar.  His  second 
in  command,  Colonel  Ximenes,  was  also  taken,  as  were  also  almost  all  the 
commandants  and  majors  of  the  corps,  a  multitude  of  inferior  officers,  and 
more  than  1,600  men.  All  their  arms,  ammunition,  artillery,  horses,  etc., 
likewise  fell  into  the  patriots'  hands.  Hardly  fifty  men  escaped,  and  among 
these  were  some  chiefs  and  officers  of  cavalry,  who  fled  before 
the  battle  was  decided.  Those  who  escaped,  however,  had  0^  Boyaca 
only  the  surrounding  country  to  escape  into,  and  there  they  were 
captured  by  the  peasantry,  who  bound  them  and  brought  them  in  as  prisoners. 
The  patriot  loss  was  incredibly  small — only  13  killed  and  53  wounded. 

At  Boyaca  the  English  auxiliaries  were  seen  for  the  first  time  under  fire, 
and  so  gratified  was  Bolivar  with  their  behavior,  that  he  made  them  all  mem- 
bers of  the  Order  of  the  Liberator. 

Thus  was  won  Boyaca,  which,  after  Maypu,  is  the  great  battle  of  South 
America.  It  gave  the  preponderance  to  the  patriot  arms  in  the  north  of  the 
continent,  as  Maypu  had  done  in  the  south.  It  gave  New  Granada  to  the 
patriots,  and  isolated  Morillo  in  Venezuela. 

Nothing  now  remained  for  Bolivar  to  do  but  to  reach  Bogota,  the  capi- 
tal, and  assume  the  reins  of  government,  for  already  the  Spanish  officials 
much  to  the  relief  of  the  inhabitants,  'had  fled.  So,  with  a  small  escort,  he 
rode  forward,  and  entered  the  city  on  August  loth,  amid  the  acclamations 
of  the  populace. 


13*  BOLIVAR,  THE  LIBERATOR  OF  SPANISH  AMERICA 

The  final  battle  in  this  implacable  war  took  place  in  1821  at  Carabobo, 

where  the  Spaniards  met  with  a  total  defeat,  losing'  more  than 
Bolivar  and  the  ..  ^^,  ,  .  ,  i  i  <-  i  •  i  i 

Peruvians         o.ooo  men.      1  his  closed  the  struggle,  the  Spaniards  withdrew, 

and  a  republic  was  organized  with  Bolivar  as  president.  In 
1823  he  aided  the  Peruvians  in  gaining  their  independence,  and  was  de- 
clared their  liberator  and  given  supreme  authority.  For  two  years  he  ruled 
as  dictator,  and  then  resigned,  giving  the  country  a  republican  constitution. 
The  people  of  the  upper  section  of  Peru  organized  a  commonwealth  of  their 
own,  which  they  named  Bolivia,  in  honor  of  their  liberator,  while  the  con- 
gress of  Lima  elected  him  president  for  life. 

Meanwhile  Chili  had  won  its  liberty  in  1817  as  a  result  of  the  victory 
The  Freeing  of  °^  Maypu,  above  mentioned,  and  Buenos  Ayres  had  similarly 
the  other  fought  for  and  gained  independence.  In  North  America  a 
similar  struggle  for  liberty  had  gone  on,  and  with  like  result, 
Central  America  and  Mexico  winning  their  freedom  after  years  of  struggle 
and  scenes  of  'devastation  and  cruelty  such  as  those  above  mentioned.  At 
the  opening  of  the  nineteenth  century  Spain  held  a  dominion  of  continental 
dimensions  in  America.  At  the  close  of  the  first  quarter  of  the  century,  as 
a  result  of  her  mediaeval  methods  of  administration,  she  had  lost  all  her  posses- 
sions on  the  western  continent  except  the  two  islands  of  Cuba  and  Porto 
Rico.  Yet,  learning  nothing  from  her  losses,  she  pursued  the  same  methods 
in  these  fragments  of  her  dominions,  and  before  the  close  of  the  century 
these  also  were  torn  from  her  hands.  Cruelty  and  oppression  had  borne 
their  legitimate  fruits,  and  Spain,  solely  through  her  own  fault,  had  lost  the 
final  relics  of  her  magnificent  colonial  empire, 


BENJAMIN    DISRAELI  WILLIAM    I'ITT 

GKEAT   ENGLISH   STATESMEN 


1    bl 

I! 


rt    I 

S    H 


CHAPTER  VIII. 
Great  Britain  as  a  World  Empire. 

ON   the  western   edge  of  the  continent  of  Europe  lies  the  island   of 
Great  Britain,  in  the  remote  past  a  part  of  the  continent,  but  long 
ages  ago  cut  off  by  the  British  Channel.     Divorced  from  the  mainland, 
left  like  a  waif  in  the  western  sea,  peopled  by  men  with  their  own  interests 
and  aims,  it   might   naturally  be   expected  to  have  enough  to  attend  to  at 
home  and  to  take  no  part  in  continental  affairs. 

Such  was  the  case  originally.      The  island  lay  apart,  almost  unknown, 
and  was,  in   a  sense,  "discovered"  by  the   Roman   conquerors.      But  new 
people   came  to    it,   the  Anglo-Saxons,    and  subsequently  the    The  Adventur 
Normans,  both  of  them  scions  of  that  stirring  race  of  Vikings      Ous  Disposi- 
who  made  the  seas  their  own  centuries  ago   and   descended      tion  of  the 
in  conquering  inroads  on  all  the  shores  of  Europe,  while  their 
darings    keels    cut  the  waters  of  far-off  Greenland    and  touched   upon  the 
American  coast.      This  people — stirring,  aggressive,  fearless — made  a  new 
destiny  for  Great  Britain.      Their  island  shores  were   too   narrow  to   hold 
them,  and  they  set  out  on  bold  ventures  in  all  seas.     Their  situation  was  a 
happy  one    for    a    nation    of    daring   navigators    and    aggressive    warriors. 
Europe  lay  to  the  east,  the  world  to   the  west.     As   a   result    the  British 
islands  have  played  a  leading  part  alike  in  the  affairs  of  Europe  and  of  the 
world. 

France,  the   next  door  neighbor  of  Great  Britain,  was   long  its  prey. 
While,  after  the  memorable  invasion  of  William  of  Normandy,  France  never 
succeeded  in  transporting  an   army  to  the  island  shores,  and    Hostj|jty  of 
even   Napoleon   failed  utterly  in  his  stupendous   expedition,       England  to 
the    islanders    sent    army  after  army  to  France,  defeated   its 
chivalry  on  many  a  hard-fought  field,  ravaged  its  most  fertile  domains,  and 
for  a  time  hdd  it  as  a  vassal  realm  of  the  British  King. 

All  this  is  matter  of  far-past  history.  But  the  old  feeling  was  promi- 
nently shown  again  in  the  Napoleonic  wars,  when  Great  Britain  resumed 
her  attitude  of  enmity  to  France,  and  pursued  the  conqueror  with  an 
unrelenting  hostility  that  finally  ended  in  his  overthrow.  Only  for  this 
aggressive  island  Europe  might  have  remained  the  bound  slave  of  Napo- 

(141)      ' 


1 42  GREAT  BRITAIN  AS  A   WORLD  EMPIRE 

leon's  whims.  He  could  conquer  his  enemies  on  land,  but  the  people  of 
England  lay  beyond  his  reach.  Every  fleet  he  sent  to  sea  was  annihilated 
by  his  island  foes.  They  held  the  empire  of  the  waters  as  he  did  that  of 
the  land.  Enraged  against  these  ocean  hornets,  he  sought  to  repeat  the 
enterprise  of  William  of  Normany,  but  if  his  mighty  Boulogne  expedition 
had  put  to  sea  it  would  probably  have  met  the  fate  of  the  Armada  of  Spain. 
Great  Britain  was  impregnable.  The  conqueror  of  Europe  chafed  against 
its  assaults  in  vain.  This  little  island  of  the  west  was  destined  to  be  the 
main  agent  in  overthrowing  the  great  empire  that  his  military  genius  had  built. 
The  Vast  in-  Great  Britain,  small  as  it  was,  had  grown,  by  the  open- 

dustries  of  ing  of  the  nineteenth  century,  to  be  the  leading  power  in 
Great  Britain  £urOpe>  jts  industries,  its  commerce,  its  enterprise  had  ex- 
panded enormously.  It  had  become  the  great  workshop  and  the  chief 
distributor  of  the  world.  The  raw  material  of  the  nations  flowed  through 
its  ports,  the  finished  products  of  mankind  poured  from  its  looms,  London 
became  the  great  money  centre  of  the  world,  and  the  industrious  and  enter- 
prising islanders  grew  enormously  rich,  while  few  steps  of  progress  and 
enterprise  showed  themselves  in  any  of  the  nations  of  the  continent. 

It  was  with  its  money-bags  that  England  fought  against  the  conqueror. 

It  could  not  conveniently  send  men,  but  it  could  send  money  and  supplies 

to  the  warring  nations,  and  by  its  influence  and  aid  it  formed  coalition  after 

coalition  against  Napoleon,  each  harder  to  overthrow  than  the  last.     Every 

peace  that  the  Corsican  won  by  his  victories  was  overthrown  by  England's 

influence.      Her   envoys  haunted  every  court,   whispering    hostility  in  the 

Jand       ears  of  monarchs,   planning,  intriguing,   instigating,   threaten- 

Fought  ing,  in  a  thousand  ways  working  against  his  plans,  and  unre- 

AgainstNa-      lentingly  bent  upon  his  overthrow.      It    was  fitting,  then,  that 

an  English  general  should  give  Napoleon  the  coup  de  grace, 

and  that  he  should  die  a  prisoner  in  English  hands. 

Chief  among  those  to  whom  Napoleon  owes  his  overthrow  was  William 
Pitt,  prime  minister  of  England  during  the  first  period  of  his  career  of  con- 
quest, and  his  unrelenting  enemy.  It  was  Pitt  that  organized  Europe 
against  him,  that  kept  the  British  fleet  alert  and  expended  the  British 
revenues  without  stint  against  this  disturber  of  the  peace  of  the  nations, 
and  that  formed  the  policy  which  Great  Britain,  after  the  short  interval 
of  the  ministry  of  Fox,  continued  to  pursue  until  his  final  defeat  was 
achieved. 

Whether  this  policy  was  a  wise  one  is  open  to  question.  It  may  be 
that  Great  Britain  caused  more  harm  than  it  cured.  Only  for  its  persistant 
hostility  the  rapid  succession  of  Napoleonic  wars  might  not  have  taken  place, 


GREAT  BRITAIN  AS  A   WORLD  EMPIRE  143 

and  much  of  the  terrible  bloodshed  and  misery  caused  by  them  might  have 
been  obviated.  It  seems  to  have  been,  in  its  way,  disastrous  was  England's 
to  the  interests  of  mankind.  Napoleon,  it  is  true,  had  no  Policy  a  Wise 
regard  for  the  stability  of  dynasties  and  kingdoms,  but  he 
wrought  for  the  overthrow  of  the  old-time  tyranny,  and  his  marches  and 
campaigns  had  the  effect  of  stirring  up  the  dormant  peoples  of  Europe,  and 
spreading  far  and  wide  that  doctrine  of  human  equality  and  the  rights  of 
man  which  was  the  outcome  of  the  French  Revolution.  Had  he  been 
permitted  to  die  in  peace  upon  the  throne  and  transmit  his  crown  to  his 
descendant,  the  long  era  of  reaction  would  doubtless  have  been  avoided 
and  the  people  of  Europe  have  become  the  freer  and  happier  as  a  result  of 
Napoleon's  work. 

The  people  of  Great  Britain  had  no  reason  to  thank  their  ministers  for 
their  policy.  The  cost  of  the  war,  fought  largely  with  the  purse,  had  been 
enormous,  and  the  public  debt  of  the  kingdom  was  so  greatly  increased 
that  its  annual  interest  amounted  to  $150,000,000.  But  the  country 
emerged  from  the  mighty  struggle  with  a  vast  growth  in  power  and  pres- 
tige. It  was  recognized  as  the  true  leader  in  the  great  contest  and  had 
lifted  itself  to  the  foremost  position  in  European  politics.  The  Prestige 
On  land  it  had  waged  the  only  successful  campaign  against  Gained  by 
Napoleon  previous  to  that  of  the  disastrous  Russian  expedi-  Qreat  Britain 
tion.  At  sea  it  had  destroyed  all  opposing  fleets,  and  reigned  the  unques- 
tioned mistress  of  the  ocean  except  in  American  waters,  where  alone  her 
proud  ships  had  met  defeat. 

The  islands  of  Great  Britain  and  Ireland  had  ceased  to  represent  the 
dominions  under  the  rule  of  the  British  king.  In  the  West  Indies  new 
islands  had  been  added  to  his  colonial  possessions.  In  the  East  Indies  he 
had  become  master  of  an  imperial  domain  far  surpassing  the  mother 
country  in  size  and  population,  and  with  untold  possibilities  of  wealth.  In 
North  America  the  great  colony  of  Canada  was  growing  in  population 
and  prosperity.  Island  after  island  was  being  added  to  his  possessions  in 
the  Eastern  seas.  Among  these  was  the  continental  island  of  Australia, 
then  in  its  early  stage  of  colonization.  The  possession  of  Qreat  Extension 
Gibraltar  and  Malta,  the  protectorate  over  the  Ionian  Islands,  of  England's 
and  the  right  of  free  navigation  on  the  Dardanells  gave  Great  Colonie* 
Britain  the  controlling  power  in  the  Mediterranean;  And  Cape  Colony, 
which  she  received  as  a  result  of  the  Treaty  of  Vienna,  was  the  entering 
wedge  for  a  great  dominion  in  South  Africa. 

Thus  Great   Britain  had  attained  the  position  and  dimensions  of  a 


i44  GREAT  BRITAIN  AS  A   WORLD  EMPIRE 

world-empire.      Her  colonies  lay  in  all  continents  and  spread  through  all 

The  Wars  of        seas,  and  they  were  to  grow  during  the   century  until   they 

the  World-       enormously  excelled  the  home  country  in  dimensions,  popu- 

Empire  lation,  and  natural  wealth.     The  British  Islands  were  merely 

the  heart,  the  vital  centre  of  the  great  system,  while  the  body  and  limbs 

lay  afar,  in  Canada,  India,  South  Africa,  Australia  and  elsewhere. 

But  the  world-empire  of  Great  Britain  was  not  alone  one  of  peaceful 
trade  and  rapid  accumulation  of  wealth,  but  of  wars  spread  through  all  the 
continents,  war  becoming  a  permanent  feature  of  its  history  in  the  nine- 
teenth century.  After  the  Napoleonic  period  England  waged  only  one 
war  in  Europe,  the  Crimean  ;  but  elsewhere  her  troops  were  almost  con- 
stantly engaged.  Now  they  were  fighting  with  the  Boers  and  the  Zulus 
of  South  Africa,  now  with  the  Arabs  on  the  Nile,  now  with  the  wild  tribes 
of  the  Himalayas,  now  with  the  natives  of  New  Zealand,  now  with  the 
half  savage  Abyssinians.  Hardly  a  year  has  passed  without  a  fight  of  some 
sort,  far  from  the  centre  of  this  vast  dominion,  while  for  years  England 
and  Russia  have  stood  face  to  face  on  the  northern  borders  of  India, 
threatening  at  any  moment  to  become  involved  in  a  terrible  struggle  for 
dominion. 

And  the  standing  of  Great  Britain  as  a  world  power  lay  not  alone  in 
her  vast  colonial  dominion  and  her  earth-wide  wars,  but  also  in  the  extra- 
ordinary enterprise  that  carried  her  ships  to  all  seas,  and  made  her  the 
commercial  emporium  of  the  world.  Not  only  to  her  own  colonies,  but  to 
all  lands,  sailed  her  enormous  fleet  cf  merchantmen,  gathering  the  products 
of  the  earth,  to  be  consumed  at  home  or  distributed  again  to  the  nations  of 
Europe  and  America.  She  had  assumed  the  position  of  the  purveyor  and 
carrier  for  mankind. 

This  was  not  all.  Great  Britain  was  in  a  large  measure,  the  producer 
for  mankind.  Manufacturing  enterprise  and  industry  had  grown  im- 
mensely on  her  soil,  and  countless  factories,  forges  and  other  workshops 
turned  out  finished  goods  with  a  speed  and  profusion  undreamed  of  before. 
The  preceding  century  had  been  one  of  active  invention,  its  vital  product 
being  the  steam  engine,  that  wonder-worker  which  at  a  touch  was  to  over- 
turn the  old  individual  labor  system  of  the  world,  and  replace  it  with  the 
congregate,  factory  system  that  has  revolutionized  the  industries  of  man- 
kind. The  steam  engine  stimulated  invention  extraordinarily.  Machines  for 
Manufacturing  spinning,  weaving,  iron-making,  and  a  thousand  other  pur- 
and  inventive  poses  came  rapidly  into  use,  and  by  their  aid  one  of  the  greatest 
steps  of  progress  in  the  history  of  mankind  took  place,  the 
grand  nineteenth  century  revolution  in  methods  of  production. 


GREAT  BRITAIN  AS  A   WORLD  EMPIRE  145 

Great  Britain  did  not  content  herself  with  going  abroad  for  the  ma- 
terials of  her  active  industries.  She  dug  her  way  into  the  bowels  of  the 
earth,  tore  from  the  rocks  its  treasures  of  coal  and  iron,  and  thus  obtained 
the  necessary  fuel  for  her  furnaces  and  metal  for  her  machines.  The  whole 
island  resounded  with  the  ringing  of  hammers  and  rattle  of  wheels,  goods  were 
produced  very  far  beyond  the  capacity  of  the  island  for  their  consump- 
tion, and  the  vast  surplus  was  sent  abroad  to  all  quarters  of  the  earth,  to 
clothe  savages  in  far-off  regions  and  to  furnish  articles  of  use  and  luxury 
to  the  most  enlightened  of  the  nations.  To  the  ship  as  a  carrier  was  soon 
added  the  locomotive  and  its  cars,  conveying  these  products 
inland  with  unprecedented  speed  from  a  thousand  ports.  And 
from  America  came  the  parallel  discovery  of  the  steamship, 
signalling  the  close  of  the  long  centuries  of  dominion  of  the  sail.  Years 
went  on  and  still  the  power  and  prestige  of  Great  Britain  grew,  still  its 
industry  and  commerce  spread  and  expanded,  still  its  colonies  increased  in 
population  and  new  lands  were  added  to  the  sum,  until  the  island-empire 
stood  foremost  in  industry  and  enterprise  among  the  nations  of  the  world, 
and  its  people  reached  the  summit  of  their  prosperity.  From  this  lofty 
elevation  was  to  come,  in  the  later  years  of  the  century,  a  slow  but  inevi- 
table decline,  as  the  United  States  and  the  leading  European  nations 
developed  in  industry,  and  rivals  to  the  productive  and  commercial  supre- 
macy of  the  British  islanders  began  to  arise  in  various  quarters  of  the  earth. 

It  cannot  be  said  that  the  industrial  prosperity  of  Great  Britain,  while 
of  advantage  to  her  people  as  a  whole,  was  necessarily  so  to  individuals. 
While  one  portion  of  the  nation  amassed  enormous  wealth,  the  bulk  of  the 
people  sank  into  the  deepest,  poverty.  The  factory  system  brought  with  it 
oppression  and  misery  which  it  would  need  a  century  of  indus- 

.    ,  ,  ^,  ,  ,  .  Disastrous 

trial  revolt  to  overcome.  1  he  costly  wars,  the  crushing  taxa-  Effect  on  the 
tion,  the  oppressive  corn-laws,  which  forbade  the  importation  People  of  the 
of  foreign  corn,  the  extravagant  expenses  of  the  court  and  ^^  on 
salaries  of  officials,  all  conspired  to  depress  the  people.  Manu- 
facturies  fell  into  the  hands  of  the  few,  and  a  vast  number  of  artisans  were 
forced  to  live  from  hand  to  mouth,  and  to  labor  for  long  hours  on  pinching 
wages.  Estates  were  similarly  accumulated  in  the  hands  of  the  few,  and 
the  small  la"nd-owner  and  trader  tended  to  disappear.  Everything  was 
taxed  to  the  utmost  it  would  bear,  while  government  remained  blind  to 
the  needs  and  sufferings  of  the  people  and  made  no  effort  to  decrease  the 
prevailing  misery. 

Thus  it  came  about  that  the  era  of  Great  Britain's  greatest  prosperity 
and  supremacy  as  a  world-power  was  the  one  of  greatest  industrial  oppres- 


146  GREAT  BRITAIN  AS  A   WORLD  EMPIRE 

sion  and  misery  at  home,  a  period  marked  by  rebellious  uprisings  among 
the  people,  to  be  repressed  with  cruel  and  bloody  severity.  It  was  a 
period  of  industrial  transition,  in  which  the  government  flourished  and  the 
people  suffered,  and  in  which  the  seeds  of  revolt  and  revolution  were 
widely  spread  on  every  hand. 

This  state  of  affairs  cannot  be  said  to  have  ended.  In  truth  the  pre- 
sent condition  of  affairs  is  one  that  tends  to  its  aggravation.  Neither  the 
manufacturing  nor  commercial  supremacy  of  Great  Britain  are  what  they  once 
were.  In  Europe,  Germany  has  come  into  the  field  as  a  formidable  com- 
petitor, and  is  gaining  a  good  development  in  manufacturing  industry.  The 
same  must  be  said  of  the  United  States,  the  products  of  whose  workshops 
have  increased  to  an  enormous  extent,  and  whose  commerce  has  grown  to 
suppass  that  of  any  other  nation  on  the  earth.  The  laboring  population  of 
Great  Britian  has  severely  felt  the  effects  of  this  active  rivalry,  and  is  but 
slowly  adapting  itself  to  the  new  conditions  which  it  has  brought  about,  the 
slow  but  sure  revolution  in  the  status  of  the  world's  industries. 


CHAPTER  IX. 

The  Great  Reform  Bill  and   the   Corn  Laws. 


AT  the  close  of  the  last  chapter  we  depicted  the  miseries  of  the  people 
of  Great  Britain,  due  to  the  revolution  in  the  system  of  industry, 
the  vast  expenses  of  the  Napoleonic  wars,  the  extravagance  of  the 
government,    and    the   blindness    of  Parliament    to   the    condition    of   the 
working  classes.     The  situation  had  grown  intolerable  ;  it  was  widely  felt 
that  something  must  be  done ;  if  affairs  were  allowed  to  go  on  as  they  were 
the  people    might   rise  in  a  revolt   that  would  widen    into   revolution.     A 
general  outbreak  seemed   at  hand.     To  use  the  language  of   A  Period  of 
the  times,  the  "  Red  Cock  "  was  crowing  in  the  rural  districts.       Riot  and 
That   is,  incendiary   fires  were   being   kindled   in   a  hundred 
places.      In    the    centres    of   manufacture    similar  signs  of    discontent   ap- 
peared.    Tumultuous  meetings  were  held,  riots  broke  out,  bloody  collisions 
with  the  troops  took  place.      Daily  and   hourly  the  situation  was  growing 
more  critical.     The  people  were  in  that  state  of  exasperation  that  is  the 
preliminary  stage  of  insurrection. 

Two  things  they  strongly  demanded,  reform  in  Parliament  and  repeal 
of  the  Corn  Laws.  It  is  with  these  two  questions,  reform  and  repeal,  that 
we  propose  to  deal  in  this  chapter. 

The  British  Parliament,  it  is  scarcely  necessary  to  say,  is  composed  of 
two  bodies,  the  House  of  Lords  and  the  House  of  Commons.     The  former 
represents  the  aristocratic  element  of  the  nation; — in  short,  it    The  Parliament 
represents  simply  its  members,  since  they  hold  their  seats  as      of  Great 
a  privilege  of    their   titles,   and   have   only   their  own    inter- 
ests   to   consider,  though    the   interests  of  their  class  go  with  their  own. 
The  latter  are   supposed  to  represent  the  people,  but  up  to  the  time  with 
which    we  are  now    concerned  they   had   never  fully  done  so ;    and  they 
did  so  now  less  than  ever,  since  the  right  to  vote  for  them  was  reserved  to 
a  few  thousands  of  the  rich. 

In  the  year  1830,  indeed,  the  House  of  Commons  had  almost  ceased  to 
represent  the  people  at  all.  Its  seats  were  distributed  in  accordance  with 
a  system  that  had  scarcely  changed  in  the  least  for  two  hundred  years. 

(147) 


148  THE  GREAT  REFORM  BILL  AND  THE  CORN  LAWS 

The  idea  of  distributing  the  members  in  accordance  with  the  population 
was  scarcely  thought  of,  and  a  state  of  affairs  had  arisen  which  was  as 
absurd  as  it  was  unjust.  For  during  these  two  hundred  years  great  changes 
Two  Centu-  ^a.d  taken  place  in  England.  What  were  mere  villages  or 
riesof  open  plains  had  become  flourishing  commercial  or  manufactur- 

ing cities.  Manchester,  Leeds,  Sheffield,  Liverpool,  and 
other  centres  of  industry  had  become  seats  of  great  and  busy  populations. 
On  the  other  hand,  flourishing  towns  had  decayed,  ancient  boroughs  had 
become  practically  extinct.  Thus  there  had  been  great  changes  in  the  dis- 
tribution of  population,  but  the  distribution  of  seats  in  Parliament  remained 
the  same. 

As  a  result  of  this  state  of  affairs  the  great  industrial  towns,  Manches- 
ter, Birmingham,  Sheffield,  Leeds,  and  others,  with  their  hundreds  of  thou- 
sands of  people,  did  not  send  a  single  member  to  Parliament,  while  places 
with  only  a  handful  of  voters  were  duly  represented,  and  even  places  with 

no  voters  at  all  sent  members  to  Parliament.  Land-holding 
Disfranchised  .  . 

Cities  and        lords   nominated   and   elected    those,  generally  selecting  the 

Rotten  Bo-       younger  sons  of  noble  families,  and  thus  a  large   number  of 

the  "  representatives  of  the  people  "  really  represented  no  one 

but  the  gentry  to  whom  they  owed  their  places.     "  Rotten  "  boroughs  these 

were  justly  called,  but   they  were   retained  by  the  stolid  conservatism  with 

which  the  genuine  Briton  clings  to  things  and  conditions  of  the  past. 

The  peculiar  state  of  affairs  was  picturesquely  pointed  out  by  Lord 
John  Russell  in  a  speech  in  1831.  "  A  stranger,"  he  said,  "who  was  told 
that  this  country  is  unparalleled  in  wealth  and  industry,  and  more  civilized 
and  enlightened  than  any  country  was  before  it — that  it  is  a  country  which 
prides  itself  upon  its  freedom,  and  which  once  in  seven  years  elects  repre- 
sentatives from  its  population  to  act  as  the  guardians  and  preservers  of  that 
freedom — would  be  anxious  and  curious  to  see  how  that  representation  is 
formed,  and  how  the  people  choose  their  representatives. 

"  Such  a  person  would  be  very  much  astonished  if  he  were  taken  to  a 

ruined  mound  and  told  that  that  mound  sent  two  representatives  to  Parlia- 

The  Cas   Pr         ment  I  if  ne  were  taken  to  a  stone  wall  and  told  that  these 

sentedby         niches  in  it  sent  two  representatives  to  Parliament ;  if  he  were 

Lord  John         taken  to  a  park,  where  no  houses  were  to  be   seen'  and  told 

that  that  park  sent  two  representatives  to  Parliament.      But 

he  would  be  still  more  astonished  if  he  were  to  see  large  and  opulent  towns, 

full  of  enterprise  and  industry  and  intelligence,  containing  vast  magazines 

of  every  species  of  manufacture,  and  were  then  told  that  these  towns  sent 

no  representatives  to  Parliament. 


WILLIAM   BLACK. 


WALTER    BESANT. 

POPULAR    WRITERS   OF   FICTION. 


GEORGE  MACDONALD. 


JOHN   MORLEY.  A.   J.   BALFOUR. 

ENGLISH   STATESMEN   IN   LITERATURE. 


THE  GREAT  REFORM  BILL  AND  THE  CORN  LAWS  151 

"Such  a  person  would  be  still  more  astonished  if  he  were  taken  to 
Liverpool,  where  there  is  a  large  constituency,  and  told,  '  Here  you  will 
have  a  fine  specimen  of  a  popular  election.'  He  would  see  bribery 
employed  to  the  greatest  extent  and  in  the  most  unblushing  manner ;  he 
would  see  every  voter  receiving  a  number  of  guineas  in  a  bag  as  the  price 
of  his  corruption  ;  and  after  such  a  spectacle  he  would  be,  no  doubt,  much 
astonished  that  a  nation  whose  representatives  are  thus  chosen,  could  per- 
form the  functions  of  legislation  at  all,  or  enjoy  respect  in  any  degree." 

Such  was  the  state  of  affairs  when  there  came  to  England  the  news  of 
the  quiet  but  effective  French  Revolution  of  1830.  Its  effect  in  England 
was  a  stern  demand  for  the  reform  of  this  mockery  miscalled  House  of 
Commons,  of  this  lie  that  claimed  to  represent  the  English  people.  We 
have  not  told  the  whole  story  of  the  transparent  falsehood.  Two  years 
before  no  man  could  be  a  member  of  Parliament  who  did  not  belong  to  the 
Church  of  England.  No  Dissenter  could  hold  any  public  office  in  the 
kingdom.  The  multitudes  of  Methodists,  Presbyterians,  Baptists,  and 
other  dissenting  sects  were  excluded  from  any  share  in  the  r 

*>  y  Dissenters  ant 

government.     The    same    was  the   case  with    the    Catholics,       Catholics 
few  in  England,  but   forming  the   bulk  of  the  population  of      Admitted  to 
Ireland.     This  evil,  so  far  as  all  but  the  Catholics  were  con- 
cerned, was    removed  by  Act  of    Parliament    in   1828.     The    struggle    for 
Catholic  liberation  was  conducted  in  Ireland  by  Daniel  O'Connell,  the  most 
eloquent  and  patriotic  of  its  orators.      He  was  sneered  at  by  Lord  Welling- 
ton, then  prime  minister  of  Great  Britain.      But  when  it  was  seen  that  all 
Ireland  was  backing  her  orator  the   Iron  Duke  gave  way,  and  a  Catholic 
Relief  Bill  was  passed  in    1829,  giving  Catholics  the  right  to  hold  all  but  the 
highest    offices  of  the   realm.      In    1830,   instigated   by   the    revolution    in 
France,  the  great  fight  for  the  reform  of  Parliamentary  representation  began. 

The  question  was  not  a  new  one.  It  had  been  raised  by  Cromwell, 
nearly  two  hundred  years  before.  It  had  been  brought  forward  a  number 
of  times  during  the  eighteenth  century.  It  was  revived  in  1809  and  again 
in  1821,  but  public  opinion  did  not  come  strongly  to  its  support  until  1830. 
George  IV.,  its  strong  opponent,  died  in  that  year;  William  IV.,  a  king 
more  in  its  favor,  came  to  the  throne ;  the  government  of  the  bitterly  con- 
servative Duke  of  Wellington  was  defeated  and  Earl  Grey,  a  Liberal 
minister,  took  his  place  ;  the  time  was  evidently  ripe  for  reform,  and  soon 
the  great  fight  was  on. 

The  people  of  England  looked  upon  the  reform  of  Parliament  as  a 
restoring  to  them  of  their  lost  liberties,  and  their  feelings  were  deeply 
enlisted  in  the  event.  When,  on  the  ist  of  March,  1831,  the  bill  was 


152  THE  GREAT  REFORM  BILL  AND  THE  CORN  LAWS 

brought  into  the  House  of  Commons,  the  public  interest  was  intense.      For 
hours    eager   crowds    waited   in   the    streets,  and   when   the    doors    of  the 

Parliament  house  were  opened  every    inch    of    room    in    the 
introduced       galleries  was  quickly  filled,  while  for  hundreds   of  others  no 

room  was  to  be  had. 

The  debate  opened  with  the  speech  by  Lord  John  Russell  from  which 
we  have  quoted.  In  the  bill  offered  by  him  he  proposed  to  disfranchise 
entirely  sixty-two  of  the  rotten  boroughs,  each  of  which  had  less  than  2,000 
inhabitants  ;  to  reduce  forty-seven  others,  with  less  than  4,000  inhabitants, 
to  one  member  each;  and  to  distribute  the  168  members  thus  unseated 
among  the  populous  towns,  districts,  and  counties  which  either  had  no 
members  at  all,  or  a  number  out  of  all  proportion  to  their  population. 
Also  the  suffrage  was  to  be  extended,  the  hours  for  voting  shortened,  and 
other  reforms  adopted. 

The  bill  was  debated,  pro  and  con,  with  all   the  eloquence  then  in  Par- 
liament.    Vigorously  as  it  was  presented,  the  opposing  elements  were  too 
strong,  and  its  consideration   ended  in  defeat  by  a  majority  of  eight.      Par- 
The  Fate  of        liament  was   immediately  dissolved    by   the  premier,  and  an 
Reform  in        appeal   was    made    to    the  people.     The    result   showed    the 

strength  of  the  public  sentiment,  limited  as  the  suffrage  then 
was.  The  new  Parliament  contained  a  large  majority  of  reformers,  and 
when  the  bill  was  again  presented  it  was  carried  by  a  majority  of  106.  On 
the  evening  of  its  passage  it  was  taken  by  Earl  Grey  into  the  House  of 
Lords,  where  it  was  eloquently  presented  by  the  prime  minister  and  bitterly 
attacked  by  Lord  Brougham,  who  declared  that  it  would  utterly  over- 
whelm the  aristocratic  part  of  the  House.  His  view  was  that  of  his 
fellows,  and  the  Reform  Bill  was  thrown  out  by  a  majority  of  forty-one. 

Instantly,  on  the  news  of  this  action  of  the  Lords,  the  whole  country 

blazed  into  a  state  of  excitement  and  disorder  only  surpassed  by  that  of 

civil  war.     The  people  were  bitterly  in  earnest  in  their  demand  for  reform, 

England  on  the    tneir  feelings  being  wrought  up  to  an  intense  pitch  of  excite- 

Verge  of  ment.       Riots     broke    out    in    all    sections     of    the    country. 

London  seethed  with  excitement.  The  peers  were  mobbed 
in  the  streets  and  hustled  and  assaulted  wherever  seen.  They  made  their 
way  to  the  House  only  through  a  throng  howling  for  reform.  Those 
known  to  have  voted  against  the  bill  were  in  peril  of  their  lives,  some  being 
forced  to  fly  over  housetops  to  escape  the  fury  of  the  people.  Angry 
debates  arose  in  the  House  of  Lords  in  which  even  the  Bishops  took  an 
excited  part.  The  Commons  was  like  a  bear-pit,  a  mass  of  furiously 


THE  GREAT  REFORM  BILL  AND  THE  CORN  LAWS  153 

wrangling  opponents.      England  was  shaken  to  the  centre  by  the  defeat  of 
the  bill,  and  Parliament  reflected  the  sentiment  of  the  people. 

On  December  i2th,  Russell  presented  a  third  Reform  Bill  to  the 
House,  almost  the  same  in  its  provisions  as  those  which  had  been  defeated. 
The  debate  now  was  brief,  and  the  result  .certain.  It  was  felt  to  be  no  longer 
safe  to  juggle  with  the  people.  On  the  i8th  the  bill  was  passed,  with  a 
greatly  increased  majority,  now  amounting  to  162.  To  the  Lords  again  it 
went,  where  the  Tories,  led  by  Lord  Wellington,  were  in  a  decided  majority 
against  it.  It  had  no  chance  of  passage,  unless  the  king  would  create 
enough  new  peers  to  outvote  the  opposition.  This  King  William  refused  to 
do,  and  Earl  Grey  resigned  the  ministry,  leaving  the  Tories  to  bear  the  brunt 
of  the  situation  they  had  produced. 

The  result  was  one  barely  short  of  civil  war.     The  people  rose  in  fury, 
determined    upon    reform  or    revolution.      Organized    unions    How  the  Re- 
sprang    up    in  every   town.      Threats  of    marching    an    army      form  BUI 
upon  London  were  made.      Lord  Wellington  was  mobbed  in       Was  Passed 
the  streets  and  was  in  peril  of  his  life.     The  maddened  populace  went  so 
far  as  to  curse  and   stone  the  king  himself,  one  stone   striking   him  in   the 
forehead.     The   country  was   indeed  on  the  verge   of  insurrection  against 
the  government,  and   unless  quick  action  was   taken   it  was  impossible  to 
foresee  the  result. 

William  IV.,  perhaps  with  the  recent  experience  of  Charles  X.  of 
France  before  his  eyes,  gave  way,  and  promised  to  create  enough  new 
peers  to  insure  the  passing  of  the  bill.  To  escape  this  unwelcome  necessity 
Wellington  and  others  of  the  Tories  agreed  to  stay  away  from  Parliament, 
and  the  Lords,  pocketing  their  dignity  as  best  they  could,  passed  the  bill 
by  a  safe  majority,  and  reform  was  attained.  Similar  bills  were  passed  for 
Scotland  and  Ireland,  and  thus  was  achieved  the  greatest  measure  of  reform 
in  the  history  of  the  British  Parliament.  It  was  essentially  a  revolution, 
che  first  great  step  in  the  evolution  of  a  truly  representative  assembly  in 
Great  Britain. 

The  second  great   step  was  taken  in   1867,   m  response  to  a.  popular 
demonstration  almost  as  great  and  threatening  as  that  of  1830.    The  Tories 
themselves,  under  their  leader  Mr.  Disraeli,  were  obliged  to  bring  in  this 
bill,   which   extended  the  suffrage  to  millions  of  the  people,    The  Extension 
and  made   it   almost   universal    among   the    commercial    and      oftheSuf- 
industrial  classes.      Nearly  twenty  years  later,  in   1884,  a  new 
crusade  was  made  in  favor  of  the  extension  of  the  suffrage  to  agricultural 
laborers,    previously  disfranchised.     The    accomplishment    of   this   reform 
ended  the  great  struggle,  and  for  the  first  time  in  their  history  the  people 


154  THE  GREAT  REFORM  BILL  AND  THE  CORN  LAWS 

of  Great  Britain  were  adequately  represented  in  their  Parliament,  which 
had  ceased  to  be  the  instrument  of  a  class  and  at  last  stood  for  the  whole 
commonwealth. 

The  question  of  Parliamentary  reform  settled,  a  second  great  question, 
that  of  the  Corn  Laws,  rose  up  prominently  before  the  people.  It  was  one 
that  appealed  more  immediately  to  them  than  that  of  representation.  The 
benefits  to  come  from  the  latter  were  distant  and  problematical ;  those  to 
come  from  a  repeal  of  the  Corn  Laws  were  evident  and  immediate.  Every 
poor  man  and  woman  felt  each  day  of  his  life  the  crushing  effect  of  these 
laws,  which  bore  upon  the  food  on  their  tables,  making  still  more  scarce 
and  high-priced  their  scanty  means  of  existence. 

For  centuries  commerce  in  grain  had  been  a  subject  of  legislation.      In 

1361     its    exportation     from     England     was     forbidden,    and    in    1463    its 

importation    was   prohibited    unless    the   price   of  wheat   was 

greater  than  6s.  3d.  per  quarter.     As  time  went  on  changes 

were  made   in  these  laws,  but  the  tariff  charges  kept  up  the 

price  of  grain   until  late  in  the  nineteenth  century,  and  added  greatly  to 

the  miseries  of  the  working  classes. 

The  farming  land  of  England  was  not  held  by  the  common  people,  but  by 
the  aristocracy,  who  fought  bitterly  against  the  repeal  of  the  Corn  Laws,  which, 
by  laying  a  large  duty  on  grain,  added  materially  to  their  profits.  But 
while  the  aristocrats  were  benefited,  the  workers  suffered,  the  price  of  the 
loaf  being  decidedly  raised  and  their  scanty  fare  correspondingly  dim- 
inished. 

More  than  once  they  rose  in  riot  against  these  laws,  and  occasional 
changes  were  made  in  them,  but  many  years  passed  after  the  era  of  parlia- 
mentary reform  before  public  opinion  prevailed  in  this  second  field  of 
Cobdenandthe  eff°rt-  Richard  Cobden,  one  of  the  greatest  of  England's 
Anti-Corn  orators,  was  the  apostle  of  the  crusade  against  these  misery- 
Law  Crusade  producing  laws.  He  advocated  their  repeal  with  a  power 
and  influence  that  in  time  grew  irresistible.  He  was  not  affiliated  with 
either  of  the  great  parties,  but  stood  apart  as  an  independent  Radical,  a 
man  with  a  party  of  his  own,  and  that  party,  Free  Trade.  For  the  crusade 
against  the  Corn  Laws  widened  into  one  against  the  whole  principle  of 
protection.  Backed  by  the  public  demand  for  cheap  food,  the  movement 
went  on,  until  in  1846  Cobden  brought  over  to  his  side  the  government 
forces  under  Sir  Robert  Peel,  by  whose  aid  the  Corn  Laws  were  swept 
away  and  the  ports  of  England  thrown  open  to  the  free  entrance  of  food 
from  any  part  of  the  world.  The  result  was  a  serious  one  to  English  agri- 
culture, but  it  was  of  great  benefit  to  the  English  people  in  their  status  as 


THE  GREAT  REFORM  BILL  AMD  THE  CORN  LA  WS  155 

the  greatest    of    manufacturing    and   commercial    nations.     Supplying   the 
world  with  goods,  as  they  did,  it  was  but  just  that  the  world  should  supply 
them    with    food.     With  the    repeal  of  the    duties    on   grain    Qreat  Britain 
the  whole  system  of  protection  was  dropped  and  in  its  place      Adopts  Free 
was  adopted  that  system  of  free  trade  in  which  Great  Britain 
stands  alone  among  the  nations  of   the  world.     It  was  a  system  especially 
adapted  to  a  nation  whose   market  was    the  world   at   large,  and   under  it 
British  commerce  spread  and  flourished  until  it  became  one  of  the  wonders 
of  the  world. 


CHAPTER  X. 

Turkey,  the  "Sick  Man"  of  Europe. 

AMONG    the    most    interesting   phases    of    nineteenth-century    history 
is  that   of   the   conflict  between  Russia  and  Turkey,  a  struggle   for 
dominion   that  came   down  from  the  preceding   centuries,    and   still 
seems  only  temporarily  laid  aside  for  final   settlement  in  the  years  to  come. 
In  the  eighteenth  century  the  Turks  proved  quite  able  to  hold   their  own 
against  all  the  power  of  Russia  and  all  the   armies  of  Catharine  the  Great, 

and  they  entered  the  nineteenth  century  with  their  ancient  do- 
The  "Sick  Man"  .  .  ,  ,  .  n  i  i  1-  •  i 

of  Europe         minion    largely  intact.      But    they  were   declining  in  strength 

while  Russia  was  growing,  and '  long  before  1900  the  empire 
of  the  Sultan  would  have  become  the  prey  of  the  Czar  had  not  the  other  powers 
of  Europe  come  to  the  rescue.  The  Czar  Nicholas  designated  the  Sultanas 
"the  sick  man"  of  Europe,  and  such  he  and  his  empire  have  truly  become. 

The  ambitious  designs  of  Russia  found  abundant  warrant  in  the  cruel 
treatment  of  the  Christian  people  of  Turkey.  A  number  of  Christian  king- 
doms lay  under  the  Sultan's  rule,  in  the  south  inhabited  by  Greeks,  in  the 
north  by  Slavs ;  their  people  treated  always  with  harshness  and  tyranny  ; 
their  every  attempt  at  revolt  repressed  with  savage  cruelty.  We  have  seen 
how  the  Greeks  rebelled  against  their  oppressors  in  1821,  and,  with  the  aid 
The  Result  of  °^  Europe,  won  their  freedom  in  1829.  Stirred  by  this  strug* 
the  War  of  gle,  Russia  declared  war  against  Turkey  in  1828,  and  in  the 

treaty  of  peace  signed  at  Adrianople  in  1829  secured  not  only 
the  independence  of  Greece,  but  a  large  degree  of  home-rule  for  the  north- 
ern principalities  of  Servia,  Moldavia,  and  Wallachia.  Turkey  was  forced 
in  a  measure  to  loosen  her  grip  on  Christian  Europe.  But  the  Russians 
were  not  satisfied  with  this.  They  had  got  next  to  nothing  for  themselves. 
England  and  the  other  Western  powers,  fearful  of  seeing  Russia  in  posses- 
sion of  Constantinople,  had  forced  her  to  release  the  fruits  of  her  victory. 
It  was  the  first  step  in  that  jealous  watchfulness  of  England  over  Constanti- 
nople which  was  to  have  a  more  decided  outcome  in  later  years.  The  new- 
born idea  of  maintaining  the  balance  of  power  in  Europe  stood  in  Russia's 
way,  the  nations  of  the  W^est  viewing  in  alarm  the  threatening  growth  of 
the  great  Muscovite  Empire. 
156 


TURKEY,  THE  "  SICK  MAN"  OF  EUROPE  157 

The  ambitious  Czar  Nicholas  looked  upon  Turkey  as  his  destined  prey, 
and  waited  with  impatience  a  sufficient  excuse  to  send  his  armies  again  to 
the  Balkan  Peninsula,  whose  mountain  barrier  formed  the  great  natural  bul- 
wark of  Turkey  in  the  north.  Though  the  Turkish  government  at  this 
time  avoided  direct  oppression  of  its  Christian  subjects,  the  fanatical  Mo- 
hammedans were  difficult  to  restrain,  and  the  robbery  and  oppression  of 
murder  of  Christians  was  of  common  occurrence.  A  source  the  Christians 
of  hostility  at  length  arose  from  the  question  of  protecting 
these  ill-treated  peoples.  By  favor  of  old  treaties  the  czar  claimed  a  certain 
right  to  protect  the  Christians  of  the  Greek  faith.  France  assumed  a  simi- 
lar protectorate  over  the  Roman  Catholics  of  Palestine,  but  the  greater 
number  of  Greek  Christians  in  the  Holy  Land,  and  the  powerful  support  of 
the  czar,  gave  those  the  advantage  in  the  frequent  quarrels  which  arose  in 
Jerusalem  between  the  pilgrims  from  the  East  and  the  West. 

Nicholas,  instigated  by  his  advantage  in  this  quarter,  determined  to  de- 
clare himself  the   protector  of  all  the  Christians   in  the  Turkish  Empire,  a 
claim  which    the  sultan  dared  not  admit  if  he  wished  to  hold    The  Balance  Of 
control   over    his    Mohammedan   subjects.     War  was    in    the       Power  in 
air,    and    England    and    France,    resolute    to    preserve    the      Eur°P« 
"balance    of    power,"    sent    their    fleets    to    the    Dardanelles    as    useful 
lookers-on. 

The  sultan  had  already  rejected  the  Russian  demand,  and  Nicholas  lost 
no  time  in  sending  an  army,  led  by  Prince  Gortchakoff,  with  orders  to  cross 
the   Pruth  and  take  possession  of  the  Turkish  provinces   on  the  Danube. 
The  gauntlet  had  been   thrown  down.     War  was  inevitable.     The  English 
newspapers    demanded  of  their   government  a  vigorous    policy.     The    old 
Turkish   party  in  Constantinople  was  equally  urgent  in  its  demand  for  hos- 
tilities.    At  length,  on   October  4,  1853,  the  sultan  declared    TheSu|tenDe. 
war  against  Russia  unless  the  Danubian   principalities  were  at      clares  War 
once  evacuated.      Instead  of  doing  so,  Nicholas  ordered  his      Against 
generals  to  invade  the  Balkan  territory,  and  on  the  other  hand 
France  and   England  entered  into  alliance  with  the   Porte  and  sent  their 
fleets   to  the    Bosporus.     Shortly  afterwards  the  Russian   Admiral  Nachi- 
moff  surprised  a  Turkish  squadron  in   the  harbor  of  Sinope,  attacked  it, 
and — though  the  Turks  fought  with  the  greatest  courage — the   fleet  was 
destroyed  and  nearly  the  whole  of  its  crews  were  slain. 

This  turned  the  tide  in  England  and  France,  which  declared  war  in 
March,  1854,  while  Prussia  and  Austria  maintained  a  waiting  attitude.  No 
event  of  special  importance  took  place  early  in  the  war.  In  April  Lord 
Raglan,  with  an  English  army  of  20,000  men,  landed  in  Turkey  and  the 


158  TURKEY,  THE  "  SICK  MAN  "  OF  EUROPE 

siege  of  the  Russian  city  of  Odessa  was  begun.      Meanwhile  the  Russians, 

who  had    crossed    the   Danube,   found  it  advisable  to  retreat  and  withdraw 

across  the  Pruth,  on  a  threat  of  hostilities  from  Austria  and 

England  and  < 

France  Come     Prussia  unless  the  principalities  were  evacuated. 

to  the  Aid  of  The  French   had   met  with  heavy  losses  in  an  advance 

Turkey 

from    Varna,    and  the   British  fleet  had   made  an  expedition 

against  St.  Petersburg,  but  had  been  checked  before  the  powerful  fortress 
of  Cronstadt.  Such  was  the  state  of  affairs  in  the  summer  of  1854,  when 
the  allies  determined  to  carry  the  war  into  the  enemy's  territory,  attack  the 
maritime  city  of  Sebastopol  in  the  Crimea,  and  seek  to  destroy  the  Russian 
naval  power  in  the  Black  Sea. 

Of  the  allied  armies  15,000  men  had  already  perished.  With  the 
remaining  forces,  rather  more  than  50,000  British  and  French  and  6,000 
Turks,  the  fleet  set  sail  in  September  across  the  Black  Sea,  and  landed  near 
Eupatoria  on  the  west  coast  of  the  Crimean  peninsula,  on  the  4th  of  Sep- 
tember, 1854.  Southwards  of  Eupatoria  the  sea  forms  a  bay, 
The  War  in  the  .  ,.  ,  .  f  ,  ,,  t  T  i 

Crimea  mto  which,  near  the  rums  of  the  old  town  of  Inkermann,  the 

little  river  Tschernaja  pours  itself.  On  its  southern  side 
lies  the  fortified  town  of  Sebastopol,  on  its  northern  side  strong  fortifica- 
tions were  raised  for  the  defence  of  the  fleet  of  war  which  lay  at  anchor  in 
the  bay.  Farther  north  the  western  mountain  range  is  intersected  by  the 
river  Alma,  over  which  Prince  Menzikoff,  governor  of  the  Crimea,  garrisoned 
the  heights  with  an  army  of  30,000  men.  Against  the  latter  the  allies  first 
directed  their  attack,  and,  in  spite  of  the  strong  position  of  the  Russians 
on  the  rocky  slopes,  Menzikoff  was  compelled  to  retreat,  owing  his  escape 
from  entire  destruction  only  to  the  want  of  cavalry  in  the  army  of  the  allies. 
This  dearly  bought  and  bloody  battle  on  the  Alma  gave  rise  to  hopes  of  a 
speedy  termination  of  the  campaign  ;  but  the  allies,  weakened  and  wearied 
by  the  fearful  struggle,  delayed  a  further  attack,  and  Menzikoff  gained  time 
to  strengthen  his  garrison,  and  to  surround  Sebastopol  with  strong  fortifica- 
tions. When  the  allies  approached  the  town  they  were  soon  convinced  that 
any  attack  on  such  formidable  defences  would  be  fruitless,  and  that  they 
must  await  the  arrival  of  fresh  reinforcements  and  ammunition.  The  Eng- 
lish took  up  their  position  on  the  Bay  of  Balaklava,  and  the  French  to  the 
west,  on  the  Kamiesch. 

There  now  commenced  a  siege  such  as  has  seldom  occurred  in  the 
history  of  the  world.  The  first  attempt  to  storm  by  a  united  attack  of  the 
land  army  and  the  fleet  showed  the  resistance  to  be  much  more  formidable 
than  had  been  expected  by  the  allies.  Eight  days  later  the  English  were 
surprised  in  their  strong  position  near  Balaklava  by  General  Liprancli. 


TURKEY,  THE  "  SICK  MAN"  OF  EUROPE  161 

The  battle  of  Balaklava  was  decided  in   favor  of  the  allies,  and  on  the  5th 
of  November,  when  Menzikoff  had  obtained  fresh    reinforce- 
ments, the  murderous  battle  of  Inkermann  was  fought  under 


the  eyes  of  the  two  Grand  Princes  Nicholas  and  Michael,  and 
after  a   mighty  struggle  was    won   by  the  allied  armies.     Fighting  in   the 
ranks  were   two   other  princely  personages,  the   Duke   of  Cambridge  and 
Prince  Napoleon,  son  of  Jerome,  former  King  of  Westphalia. 

Of  the  engagements  here  named  there  is  only  one  to  which  special 
attention  need  be  directed,  the  battle  of  Balaklava,  in  which  occurred  that 
mad  but  heroic  "Charge  of  the  Light  Brigade,"  which  has  become  famous 
in  song  and  story.  The  purpose  of  this  conflict  on  the  part  of  the  Rus- 
sians was  to  cut  the  line  of  communication  of  the  allies,  by  capturing  the 
redoubts  that  guarded  them,  and  thus  to  enforce  a  retreat  by  depriving  the 
enemy  of  supplies. 

The  day  began  with  a  defeat  of   the  Turks  and  the  capture  by  the 
Russians  of  several  of  the  redoubts.     Then  a  great  body  of   The  Highland- 
Russian  cavalry,  3,000  strong,  charged  upon  the  93d   High-      ers'"Thin, 
landers,  who  were  drawn  up  in  line  to  receive  them.     There 
was  comparatively  but  a  handful  of  these  gallant  Scotchmen,  550  all  told, 
but  they  have  made  themselves  famous  in  history  as  the  invincible  "  thin, 
red  line." 

Sir  Colin  Campbell,  their  noble  leader,  said  to  them  :  "  Remember, 
lads,  there  is  no  retreat  from  here.  You  must  die  where  you  stand." 

"Ay,  ay,  Sir  Colin,"  shouted  the  sturdy  Highlanders,  "we  will  do 
just  that." 

They  did  not  need  to.  The  murderous  fire  from  their  "  thin,  red  line  " 
was  more  than  the  Russians  cared  to  endure,  and  they  were  driven  back  in 
disorder. 

The  British  cavalry  completed  the  work  of  the  infantry.  On  the 
serried  mass  of  Russian  horsemen  charged  Scarlett's  Heavy  Brigade,  vastly 
inferior  to  them  in  number,  but  inspired  with  a  spirit  and  courage  that 
carried  its  bold  horsemen  through  the  Russian  columns  with  such  resistless 
energy  that  the  great  body  of  Muscovite  cavalry  broke  and  fled  —  3,000 
completely  routed  by  800  gallant  dragoons. 

And  now  came  the  unfortunate  but  world-famous  event  of  tne  day. 
It  was  due  to  a  mistaken  order.  Lord  Raglan,  thinking  that  the  Russians 
intended  to  carry  off  the  guns  captured  in  the  Turkish  redoubts,  sent  an 
order  to  the  brigade  of  light  cavalry  to  "  advance  rapidly  to  the  front  and 
prevent  the  enemy  from  carrying  off  the  guns," 


i62  TURKEY,  THE  "  SICK  MAN"  OF  EUROPE 

Lord  Lucan,  to  whom  the  command  was  brought,  did  not  understand 
Captain  Nolan      ^-     Apparently,  Captain  Nolan,  who  conveyed  the  order,  did 
and  the  Order   not  clearly  explain  its  purport. 

to  Charge  "Lord  Raglan  orders  that   the  cavalry  shall  attack  im- 

mediately," he  said,  impatient  at  Lucan's  hesitation. 

"  Attack,  sir  ;  attack  what  ?"  asked  Lucan. 

"There,  my  lord,  is  your  enemy;  there  are  your  guns,"  said  Nolan, 
with  a  wave  of  his  hand  towards  the  hostile  lines. 

The  guns  he  appeared  to  indicate  were  those  of  a  Russian  battery  at 
the  end  of  the  valley,  to  attack  which  by  an  unsupported  cavalry  charge 
was  sheer  madness.  Lucan  rode  to  Lord  Cardigan,  in  command  of  the 
cavalry,  and  repeated  the  order. 

"  But  there  is  a  battery  in  front  of  us  and  guns  and  riflemen  on  either 
flank,"  said  Cardigan. 

"  I  know  it,"  answered  Lucan.  "  But  Lord  Raglan  will  have  it.  We 
have  no  choice  but  to  obey." 

"  The  brigade  will  advance,"  said  Cardigan,  without  further  hesitation. 

In  a  moment  more  the  "gallant  six  hundred  "  were  in  motion — going  in 
the  wrong  direction,  as  Captain  Nolan  is  thought  to  have  percieved.  At 
all  events  he  spurred  his  horse  across  the  front  of  the  brigade,  waving  his 
sword  as  if  with  the  intention  to  set  them  right.  But  no  one  understood 
him,  and  at  that  instant  a  fragment  of  shell  struck  him  and  hurled  him  dead 
to  the  earth.  There  was  no  further  hope  of  stopping  the  mad  charge. 

On  and  on  went  the  devoted  Light  Brigade,  their  pace   increasing  at 

every  stride,  headed  straight  for  the  Russian  battery  half  a  league  away. 

The  Charge          As  they  went  fire  was  opened  on  them  from  the  guns  in  flank. 

of  the  Light      Soon   they   came   within   range   of  the  guns  in   front,  which 

also  opened  a  raking  fire.     They  were  enveloped  in  "  a  zone 

of  fire,  and  the  air  was  filled  with  the  rush  of  shot,  the  bursting  of  shells, 

and  the  moan  of  bullets,  while  amidst  the  infernal  din  the  work  of  death 

went  on,  and  men  and  horses  were  incessantly  dashed  to  the  ground." 

But  no  thought  of  retreat  seems  to  have  entered  the  minds  of  those 
brave  dragoons  and  their  gallant  leader.  Their  pace  increased ;  the) 
reached  the  battery  and  dashed  in  among  the  guns  ;  the  gunners  were  cut 
down  as  they  served  their  pieces.  Masses  of  Russian  cavalry  standing  near 
were  charged  and  forced  back.  The  men  fought  madly  in  the  face  of  death 
until  the  word  came  to  retreat. 

Then,  emerging  from  the  smoke  of  the  battle,  a  feeble  remnant  of  the 
"  gallant  six  hundred  "  appeared  upon  the  plain,  comprising  one  or  two  large 
groups,  though  the  most  of  them  were  in  scattered  parties  of  two  or  three, 


TURKEY,  THE  "  SICK  MAN"  OF  EUROPE  163 

One  group  of  about  seventy  men  cut  their  way  through  three  squadrons  of 
Russian  lancers.     Another  party  of  equal   strength  broke  through  a  second 
intercepting  force.     Out  of  some  647  men  in  all,  247  were  killed  and  wounded, 
and  nearly  all  the  horses  were  slain.      Lord  Cardigan,  the  first   The  Sad  End 
to  enter  the  battery,  was  one  of  those  who  came  back  alive.       of  a  Deed 
The  whole  affair  had  occupied  no  more  than  twenty  minutes.       of  Glory 
But  it  was  a  twenty  minutes  of  which  the  British  nation  has  ever  since  been 
proud,  and  which   Tennyson   has  made   famous  by  one  of  the   most  spirit- 
stirring   of  his    odes.     The  French   General    Bosquet  fairly   characterized 
it  by  his  often    quoted    remark  :  "C'est  magnifique,  mais  ce   n'est    pas  la 
guerre."  (It  is  magnificent,  but  it  is  not  war.) 

These  battles  in  the  field  brought  no  changes  in  the  state  of  affairs. 
The  siege  of  Sebastopol  went  on  through  the  winter  of  1854-55,  during 
which  the  allied  army  suffered  the  utmost  misery  and  privation,  partly  the 
effect  of  climate,  largely  the  result  of  fraud  and  incompetency  at  home. 
Sisters  of  Mercy  and  self-sacrificing  English  ladies — chief  among  them  the 
noble  Florence  Nightingale — strove  to  assuage  the  sufferings  brought  on 
the  soldiers  by  cold,  hunger,  and  disease,  but  these  enemies  proved  more 
fatal  than  the  sword. 

In  the  year  1855  the  war  was  carried  on  with  increased  energy.  Sardi- 
nia joined  the  allies  and  sent  them  an  army  of  15,000  men.  Austria  broke  with 
Russia  and  began  preparations  for  war.  And  in  March  the  obstinate  czar 
Nicholas  died  and  his  milder  son  Alexander  took  his  place.  Peace  was  de- 
manded in  Russia,  yet  25,000  of  her  sons  had  fallen  and  the  honor  of  the 
nation  seemed  involved.  The  war  went  on,  both  sides  increasing  their 
forces.  Month  by  month  the  allies  more  closely  invested  the  besieged  city. 
After  the  middle  of  August  the  assault  became  almost  incessant,  cannon 
balls  dropping  like  an  unceasing  storm  of  hail  in  forts  and  streets. 

On  the  5th  of  September  began  a  terrific  bombardment,  continuing 
day  and  night  for  three  days,  and  sweeping  down  more  than  5,000  Russians 
on  the  ramparts.  At  length,  as  the  hour  of  noon  struck  on  The  Assault  on 
September  8th,  the  attack  of  which  this  play  of  artillery  was  and  Capture 
the  prelude  began,  the  French  assailing  the  Malakoff,  the  of  Sebast°Pcl 
British  the  Redan,  these  being  the  most  formidable  of  the  defensive  works 
of  the  town-.  The  French  assault  was  successful  and  Sebastopol  became 
untenable.  That  night  the  Russians  blew  up  their  remaining  forts,  sunk 
their  ships  of  war,  and  marched  out  of  the  town,  leaving  it  as  the  prize  of 
victory  to  the  allies.  Soon  after  Russia  gained  a  success  by  capturing  the 
Turkish  fortress  of  .Kars,  in  Asia  Minor,  and,  her  honor  satisfied  with  this 
success,  a  treaty  of  peace  was  concluded.  In  this  treaty  the  Black  Sea  was 


164  TURKEY,  THE  "SICK  MAN"  OF  EUROPE 

made  neutral  and  all  ships  of  war  were  excluded  from  its  waters,  while  the 
safety  of  the  Christians  of  Wallachia,  Moldavia  and  Servia  was  assured  by 
making  these  principalities  practically  independent,  under  the  protection  of 
the  powers  of  Europe. 

Turkey  came  out  of  the  war  weakened  and  shorn  of  territory.  But 
the  Turkish  idea  of  government  remained  unchanged,  and  in  twenty  years' 

time  Russia  was  fairly  goaded  into  another  war.  In  187=5 
The  Revolt  in  D  .  ,  ..  ,  .  r  ,  .  a  ,  . 

Bosnia  Bosnia  rebelled  in  consequence  of  the  insufferable  oppression 

of  the  Turkish  tax-collectors.  The  brave  Bosnians  maintained 
themselves  so  sturdily  in  their  mountain  fastnesses  that  the  Turks  almost 
despaired  of  subduing  them,  and  the  Christian  subjects  of  the  Sultan  in  all 
quarters  became  so  stirred  up  that  a  general  revolt  was  threatened. 

The  Turks  undertook  to  prevent  this  in  their  usual  fashion.  Irregular 
troops  were  sent  into  Christian  Bulgaria  with  orders  to  kill  all  they  met.  It 
was  an  order  to  the  Mohammedan  taste.  The  defenceless  villages  of  Bul- 
garia were  entered  and  their  inhabitants  slaughtered  in  cold  blood,  till 
thousands  of  men,  women,  and  children  had  been  slain^ 

When  tidings  of  these  atrocities  reached  Europe  the  nations  were 
filled  with  horror.  The  Sultan  made  smooth  excuses,  and  diplomacy 
The  "Bulgarian  sought  to  settle  the  affair,  but  it  became  evident  that  a  mas- 
Horror"  and  sacre  so  terrible  as  this  could  not  be  condoned  so  easily. 
Disraeli,  then  prime  minister  of  Great  Britain,  sought  to 
dispose  of  these  reports  as  matters  for  jest ;  but  Gladstone,  at  that  time  in 
retirement,  arose  in  his  might,  and  by  his  pamphlet  on  the  "  Bulgarian 
Horrors "  so  aroused  public  sentiment  in  England  that  the  government 
dared  not  back  up  Turkey  in  the  coming  war. 

Hostilities  were  soon  proclaimed.  The  Russians,  of  the  same  race  and  relig- 
ious sect  as  the  Bulgarians,  were  excited  beyond  control,  and  in  April,  1877, 
Alexander  II.  declared  war  against  Turkey  The  outrages  of  the  Turks  had 
been  so  flagrant  that  no  allies  came  to  their  aid,  while  the  rottenness  of 
their  empire  was  shown  by  the  rapid  advance  of  the  Russian  armies. 

They  crossed  the  Danube  in  June.  In  a  month  later  they  had 
occupied  the  principal  passes  of  the  Balkan  mountains  and  were  in  posi- 
tion to  descend  on  the  broad  plain  that  led  to  Constantinople.  But  at  this 
point  in  their  career  they  met  with  a  serious  check.  Osman  Pasha,  the 
single  Turkish  commander  of  ability  that  the  war  developed,  occupied  the 
town  of  Plevna  with  such  forces  as  he  could  gather,  fortified  it  as  strongly 
as  possible,  and  from  behind  its  walls  defied  the  Russians. 

They  dared  not  advance  and  leave  this  stronghold  in  their  rear.  For 
five  months  all  the  power  of  Russia  and  the  skill  of  its  generals  were  held  in 


TURKEY,  THE  "  SICK  MAN"  OF  EUROPE  165 

check  by  this  brave  man  and  his  few  followers,  until  Europe  and  America 
alike  looked  on  with  admiration  at  his  remarkable  defence,  in  view  of  which 
the  cause  of  the  war  was  almost  forgotten.  The  Russian  Qsman  Pacha 
general  Kriidener  was  repulsed  with  the  loss  of  8,000  men.  and  the  De- 
The  daring  Skobeleff  strove  in  vain  to  launch  his  troops  over  fenceof  PIevna 
Osman's  walls.  At  length  General  Todleben  undertook  the  siege,  adopting 
the  slow  but  safe  method  of  starving  out  the  defenders.  Osman  Pacha  now 
showed  his  courage,  as  he  had  already  shown  his  endurance.  When  hunger 
and  disease  began  to  reduce  the  strength  of  his  men,  he  resolve  on  a  final 
desperate  effort.  At  the  head  of  his  brave  garrison  the  "Lion  of  Plevna" 
sallied  from  the  city,  and  fought  with  desperate  courage  to  break  through 
the  circle  of  his  foes.  He  was  finally  driven  back  into  the  city  and  com- 
pelled to  surrender. 

Osman  had  won  glory,  and   his  fall  was  the  fall  of  the  Turkish  cause. 
The  Russians   crossed  the  Balkan,  capturing  in  the  Schipka  Pass  a  Turkish 
army    of    30,000  men.     Adrianople  was  taken,  and  the  Turk-   The  Total  De_ 
ish    line   of  retreat   cut  off.     The  Russians    marched  to  the      feat  of  the 
Bosporus,  and  the  Sultan  was  compelled  to  sue   for  peace  to   •  Turks 
save  his  capital  from  falling  into  the  hands  of  the  Christians,  as  it  had  fallen 
into  those  of  the  Turks  four  centuries  before. 

Russia  had  won  the  game  for  which  she  had  made  so  long  a  struggle. 
The  treaty  of  San  Stefano  practically  decreed  the  dissolution  of  the  Turkish 
Empire.  But  at  this  juncture  the  other  nations  of  Europe  took  part. 
They  were  not  content  to  see  the  balance  of  power  destroyed  by  Russia 
becoming  master  of  Constantinople,  and  England  demanded  that  the  treaty 
should  be  revised  by  the  European  powers.  Russia  protested,  but  Disraeli 
threatened  war,  and  the  czar  gave  way. 

The  Congress  of  Berlin,  to  which  the  treaty  was  referred,  settled  the 
question  in  the  following  manner :  Montenegro,  Roumania,  and  Servia  were 
declared  independent,  and  Bulgaria  became  free,  except  that 
it  had  to  pay  an  annual  tribute  to  the  sultan.     The  part  of      Of  BerHrf  § 
old  Bulgaria  that    lay  south    of   the  Balkan  Mountains  was 
named  East  Roumelia  and  given  its   own  civil   government,  but  was  left 
under  the  military  control  of  Turkey.     Bosnia  and  Herzegovina  were  placed 
under  the  control  of  Austria.     All  that  Russia   obtained  for  her  victories 
were  some  provinces  in  Asia  Minor.     Turkey  was  terribly  shorn,  and  since 
then  her  power  has  been  further   reduced,  for  East  Roumelia  has  broken 
loose  from  her  control  and  united  itself  again  to  Bulgaria. 

Another  twenty  years  passed,  and  Turkey  found  itself  at  war  again.  It 
was  the  old  storv,  the  oppression  of  the  Christians  This  time  the  trouble 


i66  TURKEY,  THE  "  SICK  MAN"  OF  EUROPE 

began    in  Armenia,    a  part  of  Turkey  in  Asia,    where    in   1895    and   1896 
terrible    massacres  took  place.     Indignation  reigned  in   Europe,   but    fears 
The  Turks  in       °f  a  general  war  kept  them  from  using  force,  and  the  sultan 
Armenia  and     paid  no  heed  to  the  reforms  he  promised  to  make. 

In  1896  the  Christians  of  the  island  of  Crete  broke  out  in 
revolt  against  the  oppression  and  tyranny  of  Turkish  rule.  Of  all  the  powers 
of  Europe  little  Greece  was  the  only  one  that  came  to  their  aid,  and  the  great 
nations,  still  inspired  with  the  fear  of  a  general  war,  sent  their  fleet  and 
threatened  Greece  with  blockade  unless  she  would  withdraw  her  troops. 

The  result  was  one  scarcely  expected.  Greece  was  persistant,  and 
gathered  a  threatening  army  on  the  frontier  of  Turkey,  and  war  broke  out  in 
1897  between  the  two  states.  The  Turks  now,  under  an  able  commander, 
showed  much  of  their  ancient  valor  and  intrepidity,  crossing  the  frontier,  de- 
feating the  Greeks  in  a  rapid  series  of  engagements,  and  occupying  Thessaly, 
while  the  Greek  army  was  driven  back  in  a  state  of  utter  demoralization. 
At  this  juncture,  when  Greece  lay  at  the  mercy  of  Turkey,  as  Turkey  had 
The  War  Be-  ^am  at  tnat  °f  Russia  twenty  years  before,  the  powers,  which 
tween Turkey  had  refused  to  aid  Greece  in  her  generous  but  hopeless  effort, 
and  Greece  stepped  in  to  save  her  from  ruin.  Turkey  was  bidden  to  call 
a  halt,  and  the  sultan  reluctantly  stopped  the  march  of  his  army.  He  de- 
manded the  whole  of  Thessaly  and  a  large  indemnity  in  money.  The  former 
the  powers  refused  to  grant,  and  reduced  the  indemnity  to  a  sum  within  the 
power  of  Greece  to  pay.  Thus  the  affair  ended,  and  such  is  the  status  of 
the  Eastern  Question  to-day.  But  it  may  be  merely  a  question  of  time 
when  Russia  shall  accomplish  her  long-cherished  design,  and  become  master 
of  Constantinople  ;  possibly  by  the  way  of  Asia,  in  which  her  power  is  now 
so  rapidly  and  widely  extending. 


CHAPTER   XI. 

The  European  Revolution  of  1848. 

THE  revolution  of  1830  did  not  bring  peace  and  quiet  to  France  nor 
to  Europe.  In  France  the  people  grew  dissatisfied  with  their  new 
monarch;  in  Europe  generally  they  demanded  a  greater  share  of 
liberty.  Louis  Philippe  delayed  to  extend  the  suffrage  ;  he  used  his  high 
position  to  add  to  his  great  riches  ;  he  failed  to  win  the  hearts  of  the 
French,  and  was  widely  accused  of  selfishness  and  greed.  There  were 
risings  of  legitimist  in  favor  of  the  Bourbons,  while  the  republican  element  was 
opposed  to  monarchy.  No  less  than  eight  attempts  were  made  to  remove  the 
king  by  assassination — all  of  them  failures,  but  they  showed  opposition  in 
the  disturbed  state  of  public  feeling.  Liberty,  equality,  fra-  France  to 
ternity  became  the  watchwords  of  the  working  classes,  social-  Louis  Philippe 
istic  ideas  arose  and  spread,  and  the  industrial  element  of  the  various 
nations  became  allied  in  one  great  body  of  revolutionists  known  as  the 
"  Internationalists." 

In  Germany  the  demand  of  the  people  for  political  rights  grew  until  it 
reached  a  crisis.  The  radical  writings  of  the  "Young  Germans,"  the 
stirring  songs  of  their  poets,  the  bold  utterances  of  the  press,  the  doctrines 
of  the  "  Friends  of  Light "  among  the  Protestants  and  of  the  "  German 
Catholics"  among  the  Catholics,  all  went  to  show  that  the  people  were 
deeply  dissatisfied  alike  with  the  state  and  the  church.  They  were  rapidly 
arousing  from  their  sluggish  acceptance  of  the  work  of  the  Congress  of 
Vienna  of  1815,  and  the  spirit  of  liberty  was  in  the  air. 

The  King  of  Prussia,  Frederick  William  IV.,  saw  danger  ahead.      He 

became  king  in  1840  and  lost  no  time  in  trying  to  make  his 

7  , .  r        i          .  Revolutionary 

rule  popular  by  reforms.     An  edict  of  toleration  was  issued,      sentiment  in 

the  sittings  of  the  courts  were  opened  to  the  public,  and  the  Germany  and 
Estates  of  the  provinces  were  called  to  meet  in  Berlin.  In 
the  convening  of  a  Parliament  he  had  given  the  people  a  voice.  The 
Estates  demanded  freedom  of  the  press  and  of  the  state  with  such  eloquence 
and  energy  that  the  king  dared  not  resist  them.  The  people  had  gained  a 
great  step  in  their  progress  towards  liberty. 

(167) 


1 68  THE  EUROPEAN  REVOLUTION  OF 

In  Italy  also  the  persistent  demands  of  the  people  met  with  an  encour- 
aging response.  The  Pope,  Pius  IX.,  extended  the  freedom  of  the  press, 
gave  a  liberal  charter  to  the  City  of  Rome,  and  began  the  formation  of  an 
Italian  confederacy.  In  Sicily  a  revolutionary  outbreak  took  place,  and  the 
King  of  Naples  was  compelled  to  give  his  people  a  constitution  and  a 
parliament.  His  example  was  followed'  in  Tuscany  and  Sardinia.  The 
tyrannical  Duke  of  Modena  was  forced  to  fly  from  the  vengeance  of  his 
people,  and  the  throne  of  Parma  became  vacant  by  the  death  in  1847  of 
Maria  Louisa,  the  widow  of  Napoleon  Bonaparte,  a  woman  little  loved  and 
less  respected. 

The  Italians  were  filled  with  hope  by  these  events.  Freedom  and  the 
unity  of  Italy  loomed  up  before  their  eyes.  Only  two  obstacles  stood  in 
their  way,  the  Austrians  and  the  Jesuits,  and  both  of  these  were  bitterly 
hated.  Gioberti,  the  enemy  of  the  Jesuits,  was  greeted  with  cheers,  under 
which  might  be  heard  harsh  cries  of  "  Death  to  the  Germans." 

Such  was  the  state  of  affairs  at  the  beginning  of  1848.  The  measure 
of  liberty  granted  the  people  only  whetted  their  appetite  for  more,  and  over 
all  Western  Europe  rose  an  ominous  murmur,  the  voice  of  the  people 
demanding  the  rights  of  which  they  had  so  long  been  deprived.  In  France 
this  demand  was  growing  dangerously  insistant ;  in  Paris,  the  centre  of 
European  revolution,  it  threatened  an  outbreak.  Reform  banquets  were 
the  order  of  the  day  in  France,  and  one  was  arranged  for  in  Paris  to  signa 
lize  the  meeting  of  the  Chambers. 

Guizot,  the  historian,  who  was  then  minister  of  foreign  affairs,  had 
deeply  offended  the  liberal  party  of  France  by  his  reactionary  policy.  The 
government  threw  fuel  on  the  fire  by  forbidding  the  banquet  and  taking 

steps  to  suppress  it  by  military  force.  The  people  were  enraged 
The  Outbreak  ,  *u-  r  1  ju  i  •  •  j 

in  Paris  ^Y  tnis    *alse   steP    and    began  to  gather  in  excited  groups. 

Throngs  of  them — artisans,  students,  and  tramps — were  soon 
marching  through  the  streets,  with  shouts  of  "Reform!  Down  with  Guizot !" 
The  crowds  rapidly  increased  and  grew  more  violent.  The  people  were  too 
weak  to  cope  with  them  ;  the  soldiers  were  loath  to  do  so  ;  soon  barricades 
were  erected  and  fighting  began. 

For  two  days  this  went  on.  Then  the  king,  alarmed  at  the  situation, 
dimissed  Guizot  and  promised  reform,  and  the  people,  satisfied  for  the  time 
and  proud  of  their  victory,  paraded  the  streets  with  cheers  and  songs.  All 
now  might  have  gone  well  but  for  a  hasty  and  violent  act  on  the  part  of  the 
troops.  About  ten  o'clock  at  night  a  shouting  and  torch-bearing  throng 
marched  through  the  Boulevards,  singing  and  waving  flags.  Reaching  the 
Ministry  of  Foreign  Affairs,  they  halted  and  called  for  its  illumination. 


THE  EUROPEAN  REVOLUTION  OF  1848  171 

The  troops  on  duty  there  interfered,  and,  on  an  insult  to  their  colonel  and 
the  firing  of  a  shot  from  the  mob,  they  replied  with  a  volley,  before  which 
fifty-two  of  the  people  fell  killed  and  wounded. 

This  reckless   and   sanguinary  deed  was   enough   to   turn   revolt   into 
revolution.     The  corpses  were  carried  on  biers  through  the  streets  by  the 
infuriated  people,  the  accompanying  torch-bearers  shouting  :   Revojt 
"  To  arms  !  they  are  murdering  us  !"     At  midnight  the  tocsin       Becomes 
call  rang  from  the  bells  of  Notre  Dame  ;  the  barricades,  which      Revolution 
had  been  partly  removed,  were  restored  ;  and  the  next  morning,  February 
24,    1848,    Paris  was   in   arms.      In   the   struggle   that  followed   they  were 
quickly  victorious,  and  the  capital  was  in  their  hands. 

Louis   Philippe   followed   the   example   of    Charles   X.,   abdicated    his 
throne  and  fled  to  England.     After  the  fate  of  Louis  XVI.   no  monarch 
was  willing  to  wait  and  face  a  Paris  mob.     The  kingdom  was  overthrown, 
and  a  republic,  the  second  which  France  had  known,  was  established,  the 
aged   Dupont   de  1'Eure  being   chosen    president.     The    poet    Lamartine, 
the  socialist  Louis  Blanc,  the  statesmen   Ledru-Rollin  and  Arago  became 
members  of  the  Cabinet,  and  all  looked  forward  to  a  reign    The  Second 
of   peace    and    prosperity.      The   socialises    tried  the    experi-      French 
ment  of   establishing   national   workshops   in   which   artisans 
were  to  be  employed  at  the  expense  of  the  state,  with  the  idea  that  this 
would  give  work  to  all. 

Yet  the  expected  prosperity  did  not  come.  The  state  was  soon  deeply 
in  debt,  many  of  the  people  remained  unemployed,  and  the  condition  of  in- 
dustry grew  worse  day  by  day.  The  treasury  proved  incapable  of  paying  the 
state  artisans,  and  the  public  workshops  were  closed.  In  June  the  trouble  came 
to  a  crisis  and  a  new  and  sanguinary  outbreak  began,  instigated  by  the 
hungry  and  disappointed  workmen,  and  led  by  the  advocates  of  the  "  Red 
Republic,"  who  acted  with  ferocious  brutality.  General  Brea  and  the  Arch- 
bishop of  Paris  were  murdered,  and  the  work  of  slaughter  grew  so  horrible 
that  the  National  Assembly,  to  put  an  end  to  it,  made  General  Cavaignac 
dictator  and  commissioned  him  to  put  "down  the  revolt.  A  terrible  struggle 
ensued  between  the  mob  and  the  troops,  ending  in  the  suppression  of  the 
revolt  and  the  arrest  and  banishment  of  many  of  its  ringleaders.  Ten  or 
twelve  thousand  people  had  been  killed.  The  National  Assembly  adopted 
a  republican  constitution,  under  which  a  single  legislative  chamber  and  a 
president  to  be  elected  every  four  years  were  provided  for.  The  assembly 
wished  to  make  General  Cavaignac  president,  but  the  nation,  blinded  by 
their  faith  in  the  name  of  the  great  conqueror,  elected  by  an  almost  unani- 
mous vote  his  nephew,  Louis  Napoleon,  a  man  who  had  suffered  a  long 


1 7 2  THE  EUROPEAN  RE  VOL  UTION  OF  1848 

term  of  imprisonment  for  his  several  attempts  against  the  reign  of  the  late 
king.  The  revolution,  for  the  time  being,  was  at  an  end,  and  France  was 
a  republic  again. 

The  effect  of  this  revolution  in  France  spread  far  and  wide  through 

Europe.     Outbreaks   occurred   in  Italy,    Poland,  Switzerland   and    Ireland, 

Fffectofthe        an<^  *n  Germany  the  revolutionary  fever  burned  hot.      Baden 

Revolution        was  the  first  state  to  yield  to  the  demands  of  the  people  for 

of  1848  in         freedom  of  the  press,  a  parliament   and  other  reforms,   and 

went  so  far  as  to  abolish  the    imposts  still    remaining  from 

feudal  times.     The  other  minor  states  followed  its  example.      In  Saxony, 

Wurtemberg  and  other  states  class  abuses   were  abolished,  liberals  given 

prominent    positions    under   government,  the   suffrage  and   the  legislature 

reformed,  and  men  of  liberal  sentiment  summoned  to  discuss  the  formation 

of  new  constitutions. 

But  it  was  in  the  great  despotic  states  of  Germany — Prussia  and  Aus- 
tria— that  the  liberals  gained  the  most  complete  and  important  victory,  and 
went  farthest  in  overthrowing  autocratic  rule  and  establishing  constitutional 
government.  The  great  Austrian  statesman  who  had  been  a  leader  in  the 
Congress  of  Vienna  and  who  had  suppressed  liberalism  in  Italy,  Prince  Met- 
ternich,  was  still,  after  more  than  thirty  years,  at  the  head  of 
His  System  affairs  in  Vienna.  He  controlled  the  policy  of  Austria;  his 
word  was  law  in  much  of  Germany  ;  time  had  cemented  his 
authority,  and  he  had  done  more  than  any  other  man  in  Europe  in  maintain- 
ing despotism  and  building  a  dam  against  the  rising  flood  of  liberal  senti- 
ment. 

But  the  hour  of  the  man  who  had  destroyed  the  work  of  Napoleon  was 
at  hand.  He  had  failed  to  recognize  the  spirit  of  the  age  or  to  perceive 
that  liberalism  was  deeply  penetrating  Austria.  To  most  of  the  younger 
statesmen  of  Europe  the  weakness  of  his  policy  and  the  rottenness  of  his 
system  were  growing  apparent,  and  it  was  evident  that  they  must  soon  fall 
before  the  onslaught  of  the  advocates  of  freedom. 

An  incitement  was  needed,  and  it  came  in  the  news  of  the  Paris  revolu- 
tion.  At  once  a  hot  excitement  broke  out  everywhere  in  Austria.  From 
Hungary  came  a  vigorous  demand  for  an  independent  parliament,  reform  of 
the  constitution,  decrease  of  taxes,  and  relief  from  the  burden  of  the  na- 
tional debt  of  Austria.  From  Bohemia,  whose  rights  and  privileges  had 
been  seriously  interfered  with  in  the  preceding  year,  came  similar  demands. 
In  Vienna  itself  the  popular  outcry  for  increased  privileges  grew  insistant. 

The  excitement  of  the  people  was  aggravated  by  their  distrust  of  the 
paper  money  of  the  realm  and  by  a  great  depression  in  commerce  and  indua 


THE  EUROPEAN  REVOLUTION  OF  1848  173 

try.     Daily  more    workmen    were    thrown  out    of  employment,    and   soon 
throngs  of  the  hungry  and  discontented  gathered  in  the  streets.     Students, 
as  usual,  led  away  by  their  boyish  love  of  excitement,  were 
the  first   to   create    a    disturbance,  but  others  soon  joined  in,       j*  Vienna* 
and  the  affair  quickly  became  serious. 

The  old  system  was  evidently  at  an  end.  The  policy  of  Metternich 
could  restrain  the  people  no  longer.  Lawlessness  became  general,  excesses 
were  committed  by  the  mob,  the  dwellings  of  those  whom  the  populace 
hated  were  attacked  and  plundered,  the  authorities  were  resisted  with  arms, 
and  the  danger  of  an  overthrow  of  the  government  grew  imminent.  The 
press,  which  had  gained  freedom  of  utterance,  added  to  the  peril  of  the 
situation  by  its  inflammatory  appeals  to  the  people,  and  by  its  violence 
checked  the  progress  of  the  reforms  which  it  demanded.  Metternich,  by  his 
system  of  restraint,  had  kept  the  people  in  ignorance  of  the  first  principles 
of  political  affairs,  and  the  liberties  which  they  now  asked  for  showed  them 
to  be  unadapted  to  a  liberal  government.  The  old  minister,  whose  system 
was  falling  in  ruins  about  him,  fled  from  the  country  and  sought  a  refuge  in 
England,  that  haven  of  political  failures. 

In  May,  1848,  the  emperor,  alarmed  at  the   threatening  state  of  affairs, 
left  his  capital  and  withdrew  to  Innsbruck.     The  tidings   of  his  withdrawal 
stirred    the   people   to    passion,    and    the    outbreak    of    mob    F|ight  and  Re. 
violence  which  followed  was  the  fiercest  and  most  dangerous      turn  of  the 
that  had    yet  occurred.      Gradually,  however,  the  tumult  was      EmPeror 
appeased,  a  constitutional  assembly  was  called  into  being  and  opened  by  the 
Archduke  John,  and   the  Emperor   Ferdinand  re-entered  Vienna  amid  the 
warm  acclamations  of  the  people.     The  outbreak  was  at  an  end.     Austria 
had  been  converted  from  an  absolute  to  a  constitutional  monarchy. 

In  Berlin  the  spirit  of  revolution  became  as  marked  as  in  Vienna.     The 
King  resisted  the  demands  of  the  people,  who  soon  came  into  conflict  with 
the  soldiers,  a  fierce  street  fight  breaking  out  which  continued  with  violence 
for  two  weeks.     The  revolutionists   demanded   the  removal  of  the  troops 
and  the  formation  of  a  citizen  militia,  and  the  king,  alarmed 
at  the  dangerous  crisis  in  affairs,  at  last  assented.     The  troops      Prussia  and 
were  accordingly  withdrawn,  the  obnoxious  ministry  was  dis-      the  German 
missed,  and  a^citizen-guard  was  created  for  the  defence  of  the 
city.     Three  days  afterwards  the  king   promised  to  govern  as  a  constitu- 
tional monarch,  an  assembly  was  elected  by  universal  suffrage,  and  to  it  was 
given   the  work  of  preparing  a  constitution   for  the  Prussian  state.     Here, 
as  in  Austria,  the  revolutionists  had  won  the  day  and  irresponsible  govern- 
ment was  at  an  end. 


174  THE  EUROPEAN  REVOLUTION  OF  1848 

Elsewhere  in  Germany  radical  changes  were  taking  place.  King  Louis 
of  Bavaria, who  had  deeply  offended  his  people,  resigned  in  favor  of  his  son. 
The  Duke  of  Hesse-Darmstadt  did  the  same.  Everywhere  the  liberals 
were  in  the  ascendant,  and  were  gaining  freedom  of  the  press  and  constitu- 
tional government.  The  formation  of  Germany  into  a  federal  empire  was 
proposed  and  adopted,  and  a  National  Assembly  met  at  Frankfort  on  May 
1 8,  1848.  It  included  many  of  the  ablest  men  of  Germany.  Its  principal 
work  was  to  organize  a  union  under  an  irresponsible  executive,  who  was  to 
be  surrounded  by  a  responsible  ministry.  The  Archduke  John  of  Austria 
was  selected  to  fill  this  new,  but  brief  imperial  position,  and  made  a  solemn 
entry  into  Frankfort  on  the  nth  of  July. 

All  this  was  not  enough  for  the  ultra  radicals.  They  determined  to 
found  a  German  republic,  and  their  leaders,  Hecker  and  Struve,  called  the 
people  to  arms.  An  outreak  took  place  in  Baden,  but  it  was  quickly  sup- 
pressed, and  the  republican  movement  came  to  a  speedy  end.  In  the  north 
The  Schleswig-  war  Dr°ke  Out  between  Denmark  and  Schleswig-Holstein, 
Holstein  united  duchies  which  desired  to  be  freed  from  Danish  rule 

Affair  and  annexed  to  Germany,  and  called  for  German  aid.  But 

just  then  the  new  German  Union  was  in  no  condition  to  come  to  theirassistance, 
and  Prussia  preferred  diplomacy  to  war,  with  the  result  that  Denmark  came 
out  victorious  from  the  contest.  As  will  be  seen  in  a  later  chapter,  Prussia, 
under  the  energetic  leadership  of  Bismarck,  came,  a  number  of  years  after- 
wards, to  the  aid  of  these  discontented  duchies,  and  they  were  finally  torn 
from  Danish  control. 

While  these  exciting  events  were  taking  place  in  the  north,  Italy  was 
swept  with  a  storm  of  revolution  from  end  to  end.  Metternich  was  no 
longer  at  hand  to  keep  it  in  check,  and  the  whole  peninsula  seethed  with  re- 
volt. Sicily  rejected  the  rule  of  the  Bourbon  king  of  Naples,  chose  the 
Duke  of  Genoa,  son  of  Charles  Albert  of  Sardinia,  for  its 
Md  Sardinia  king,  anc^  during  a  year  fought  for  liberty.  This  patriotic  effort 
of  the  Sicilians  ended  in  failure.  The  Swiss  mercenaries  of 
the  Neapolitan  king  captured  Syracuse  and  brought  the  island  into  subjec- 
tion, and  the  tyrant  hastened  to  abolish  the  constitution  which  he  had  been 
frightened  into  granting  in  his  hour  of  extremity. 

In  the  north  of  Italy  war  broke  out  between  Austria  and  Sardinia. 
Milan  and  Venice  rose  against  the  Austrians  and  drove  out  their  garrisons, 
throughout  Lombardy  the  people  raised  the  standard  of  independence,  and 
Charles  Albert  of  Sardinia  called  his  people  to  arms  and  invaded  that  coun- 
try, striving  to  free  it  and  the  neighboring  state  of  Venice  from  Austrian 
rule.  For  a  brief  season  he  was  successful,  pushing  the  Austrian  troops  to 


THE  EUROPEAN  REVOLUTION  OF  1848  175 

the  frontiers,  but  the  old  Marshal  Radetzky  defeated  him  at  Verona  and 
compelled  him  to  seek  safety  in  flight.  The  next  year  he  renewed  his  at- 
tempt, but  with  no  better  success.  Depressed  by  his  failure,  he  resigned  the 
crown  to  his  son  Victor  Emmanuel,  who  made  a  disadvan.tageous  peace  with 
Austria.  Venice  held  out  for  several  months,  but  was  finally  subdued,  and 
Austrian  rule  was  restored  in  the  north. 

Meanwhile  the  pope,  Pius  IX.,  offended   his  people  by  his  unwillingness 
to   aid   Sardinia  against  Austria.     He  promised  to  grant  a  constitutional 

government  and    convened    an  Assembly  in    Rome,  but  the 

,  r        ,  .  ,      The  Revolution 

Democratic    people    of     the    state  were    not    content    with      in  Rome 

feeble  concessions  of  this  kind.      Rossi,  prime  minister  of   the 
state,  was  assassinated,  and  the  pope,  filled  with  alarm,  fled  in  disguise,  leav- 
ing the   Papal  dominion  to  the   revolutionists,  who  at    once  proclaimed  a 
republic  and  confiscated  the  property  of  the  Church. 

Mazzini,  the  leader  of  "  Young  Italy,"  the  ardent  revolutionist  who  had 
long  worked  in  exile  for  Italian  independence,  entered  the  Eternal  City,  and 
with  him  Garibaldi,  long  a  political  refugee  in  America  and  a  gallant  parti- 
san leader  in  the  recent  war  with  Austria.  The  arrival  of  these  celebrated 
revolutionists  filled  the  democratic  party  in  Rome  with  the  greatest  enthu- 
siasm, and  it  was  resolved  to  defend  the  States  of  the  Church  to  the  last 
extremity,  viewing  them  as  the  final  asylum  of  Italian  liberty. 

In  this  extremity  the  pope  called  on  France  for  aid.  That  country 
responded  by  sending  an  army,  which  landed  at  Civita-Vecchia  and  marched 
upon  and  surrounded  Rome.  The  new-comers  declared  that  they  came  as 
friends,  not  as  foes ;  it  was  not  their  purpose  to  overthrow  the  republic,  but 
to  defend  the  capital  from  Austria  and  Naples.  The  leaders  of  the  insur- 
gents in  Rome  did  not  trust  their  professions  and  promises  and  refused  them 
admittance.  A  fierce  struggle  followed.  The  republicans  capture  of 
defended  themselves  stubbornly.  For  weeks  they  defied  the  Rome  by  the 
efforts  of  General  Oudinot  and  his  troops.  But  in  the  end  French  Army 
they  were  forced  to  yield,  a  conditional  submission  was  made,  and  the  French 
soldiers  occupied  the  city.  Garibaldi,  Mazzini,  and  others  of  the  leaders 
took  to  flight,  and  the  old  conditions  were  gradually  resumed  under  the  con- 
trolling influence  of  French  bayonets.  For  years  afterwards  the  French 
held  the  city  as  the  allies  and  guard  of  the  pope. 

The  revolutionary  spirit,  which  had  given  rise  to  war  in  Italy,  yielded 
a   still   more    resolute  and   sanguinary  conflict   in    Hungary, 
whose  people  were  divided  against  themselves.    The  Magyars,    TI® 
the   descendants  of   the  old    Huns,    who  demanded  govern- 
mental  institutions  of  their  own,   separate  from  these   of  Austria,  though 


1 76  THE  EUROPEAN  REVOLUTION  OF  184.8 

under  the  Austrian  monarch,  were  opposed  by  the  Slavonic  part  of  the 
population,  and  war  began  between  them.  Austrian  troops  were  ordered 
to  the  aid  of  Jellachich,  the  ruler  of  the  Slavs  of  Croatia  in  South  Hungary, 
but  their  departure  was  prevented  by  the  democratic  people  of  Vienna, 
who  rose  in  violent  insurrection,  induced  by  their  sympathy  with  the 
Magyars. 

The  whole  city  was  quickly  in  tumult,  an  attack  was  made  on  the 
arsenals,  and  the  violence  became  so  great  that  the  emperor  again  took  to 
flight.  War  in  Austria  followed.  A  strong  army  was  sent  to  subdue  the 
rebellious  city,  which  was  stubbornly  defended,  the  students'  club  being  the 
centre  of  the  revolutionary  movement.  Jellachich  led  his  Croatians  to  the 
aid  of  the  emperor's  troops,  the  city  was  surrounded  and  besieged,  sallies 
and  assaults  were  of  daily  occurrence,  and  for  a  week  and  more  a  bloody 
conflict  continued  day  and  night.  Vienna  was  finally  taken  by  storm,  the 
Vienna  Cap-  troops  forcing  their  way  into  the  streets,  where  shocking 
turedby  scenes  of  murder  and  violence  took  place.  On  November  21, 

1848,  Jellachich  entered  the  conquered  city,  martial  law  was 
proclaimed,  the  houses  were  searched,  the  prisons  filled  with  captives,  and 
the  leaders  of  the  insurrection  put  to  death. 

Shortly  afterwards  the  Emperor  Ferdinand  abdicated  the  throne  in 
favor  of  his  youthful  nephew,  Francis  Joseph,  who  at  once  dissolved  the  con 
stitutional  assembly  and  proclaimed  a  new  constitution  and  a  new  code  of 
laws.  Hungary  was  still  in  arms,  and  offered  a  desparate  resistance  to  the 
Austrians,  who  now  marched  to  put  down  the  insurrection.  They  found  it 
no  easy  task.  The  fiery  eloquence  of  the  orator  Kossuth  roused  the 
Magyars  to  a  desperate  resistance,  Polish  leaders  came  to  their  support, 
foreign  volunteers  strengthened  their  ranks,  Gorgey,  their  chief  leader, 
showed  great  military  skill,  and  the  Austrians  were  driven  out  and  the 
fortresses  taken.  The  independence  of  Hungary  was  now  proclaimed,  and  a 
government  established  under  Kossuth  as  provisional  president. 

The    repulse   of  the   Austrians    nerved   the    young    emperor  to  more 

The  Hungarian    strenuous  exertions.     The  aid  of  Russia  was  asked,  and  the 

Revoltandits    insurgent  state  invaded  on  three  sides,  by  the  Croatians  from 

Suppression      the  soutj1>  the   Russians  from   the  north,  and  the  Austrians, 

under  the  brutal  General  Haynau,  from  the  west. 

The  conflict  continued  for  several  months,  but  quarrels  between  the 
Hungarian  leaders  weakened  their  armies,  and  in  August,  1849,  Gorgey, 
who  had  been  declared  dictator,  surrendered  to  the  invaders,  Kossuth  and 
the  other  leaders  seeking  safety  in  flight.  Haynau  made  himself  infamous 
by  his  cruel  treatment  of  the  Hungarian  people,  particularly  by  his  use  of 


THE  EUROPEAN  REVOLUTION  OF  1848  177 

the  lash  upon  women.  His  conduct  raised  such  wide-spread  indignation 
that  he  was  roughly  handled  by  a  party  of  brewers,  on  his  visit  to  London 
in  1850. 

With  the  fall  of  Hungary  the  revolutionary  movement  of  1848  came  to 
an  end.  The  German  Union  had  already  disappeared.  There  were  various 
other  disturbances,  besides  those  we  have  recorded,  but  finally  all  the  states 
settled  down  to  peace  and  quiet.  Its  results  had  been  great  in  increasing 
the  political  privileges  of  the  people  of  Western  Europe,  and  with  it  the 
reign  of  despotism  in  that  section  of  the  continent  came  to  an  end. 

The  greatest  hero  of  the  war  in  Hungary  was  undoubtedly  Louis 
Kossuth,  whose  name  has  remained  familiar  among  those  of  the  patriots  of 
his  century.  From  Hungary  he  made  his  way  to  Turkey,  where  he  was 
imprisoned  for  two  years  at  Kutaieh,  being  finally  released  through  the  inter- 
vention of  the  governments  of  Great  Britain  and  the  United  States.  He  then 
visited  England,  where  he  was  received  with  enthusiastic,  popular  demon- 
strations and  made  several  admirable  speeches  in  the  English  language,  of 
which  he  had  excellent  command.  In  the  autumn  of  1851  he  came  to  the 
United  States,  where  he  had  a  flattering  reception  and  spoke  on  the  wrongs 
of  Hungary  to  enthusiastic  audiences  in  the  principal  cities. 


CHAPTER  XII. 
Louis  Napoleon  and  the  Second  French  Empire. 

THE  name  of  Napoleon  is  a  name  to  conjure  with   in  France.     Two 
generations  after  the  fall  of  Napoleon  the  Great,  the  people  of  that 
country  had  practically  forgotten  the  misery  he  had  brought  them, 
and  remembered  only  the  glory  with  which  he  had  crowned  the  name  of 
France.     When,  then,  a  man  whom  we  may  fairly  designate  as  Napoleon 
the  Small  offered  himself  for  their  suffrages,  they  cast  their  votes  almost 
unanimously  in  his  favor. 

Charles   Louis   Napoleon   Bonaparte,   to   give   this  personage  his  full 
name,  was  a  son  of  Louis 'Bonaparte,  once  king  of  Holland,  and  Hortense 
de  Beauharnais,  and  had  been  recognized  by  Napoleon  as,  after  his  father, 
Louis  Napoleon    tne  direct  successor  to  the  throne.     This  he  made  strenuous 
and  His  Claim  efforts  to  obtain,  hoping  to  dethrone  Louis  Philippe  and  in- 
to the  Throne   stall  himself  in  his  place      In   l836j  w}th  a  few  followers,  he 

made  an  attempt  to  capture  Strasbourg.  His  effort  failed  and  he  was 
arrested  and  transported  to  the  United  States.  In  1839  he  published  a 
work  entitled  "  Napoleonic  Ideas,"  which  was  an  apology  for  the  ambitious 
acts  of  the  first  Napoleon. 

The   growing    unpopularity  of    Louis  Philippe    tempted  him    at  this 
time  to  make  a  second  attempt  to  invade  France.     He  did  it  in  a  rash  way 
almost  certain  to  end  in  failure.     Followed  by  about  fifty  men,  and  bringing 
with  him  a  tame  eagle,  which  was  expected  to  perch  upon  his  banner  as  the 
harbinger  of  victory,  he  sailed  from  England  in  August,  1840,  and    landed 
at  Boulogne.     This  desperate  and  foolish   enterprise    proved    a    complete 
A  Rash  and         failure.      The  soldiers  whom  the  would-be  usurper  expected 
Unsuccessful     to  join  his  standard  arrested  him,  and  rfe  was  tried  for  treason 
invasion  ^  ^  House  of  Peers.     This  time  he  was  not  dealt  with  so 

leniently  as  before,  but  was  sentenced  to  imprisonment  for  life  and  was 
confined  in  the  Castle  of  Ham.  From  this  fortress  he  escaped  in  disguise 
in  May,  1846,  and  made  his  way  to  England. 

The  revolution  of  1848  gave  the  restless  and  ambitious  adventurer  a 
more  promising  opportunity.      He  returned  to  France,  was  elected  to  the 
National  Assembly,   and  on   the  adoption   of  the   republican   constitution 
(178) 


THE  SECOND  FRENCH  EMPIRE  181 

offered  himself  as  a  candidate  for  the  Presidency  of  the  new  republic.  And 
now  the  magic  of  the  name  of  Napoleon  told.  General  Cavaignac,  his 
chief  competitor,  was  supported  by  the  solid  men  of  the  country,  who  dis- 
trusted the  adventurer ;  but  the  people  rose  almost  solidly  in  his  support, 
and  he  was  elected  president  for  four  years  by  5,562,834  votes,  against 
1,469,166  for  Cavaignac. 

The  new  President  of  France  soon  showed  his  ambition.      He  became 
engaged  in  a  contest  with  the  Assembly  and  aroused  the  dis-    An  Autocratic 
trust  of  the  Republicans  by  his  autocratic  tones.      In  1849  ne      President  of 
still  further    offended    the  Democratic    party  by  sending  an 
army  to  Rome,  which  put  an  end  to  the  republic  in  that  city.      He  sought 
to  make  his  Cabinet  officers  the  pliant  instruments  of   his  will,  and  thus 
caused  De  Tocqueville,  the  celebrated  author,  who  was  minister  for  foreign 
affairs,  to  resign.      "  We  were  not  the  men  to  serve  him  on  those  terms," 
said  De  Tocqueville,  at  a  later  time. 

The  new-made  president  was  feeling  his  way  to  imperial  dignity.  He 
could  not  forget  that  his  illustrious  uncle  had  made  himself  emperor,  and 
his  ambition  instigated  him  to  the  same  course.  A  violent  controversy 
arose  between  him  and  the  Assembly,  which  body  passed  a  law  restricting 
universal  suffrage,  and  thus  reducing  the  popular  support  of  the  president. 
In  June,  1850,  it  increased  his  salary  at  his  request,  but  granted  the  increase 
only  for  one  year — an  act  of  distrust  which  proved  a  new  source  of  discord. 

Louis   Napoleon    meanwhile    was    preparing    for    a    daring    act.      He 
secretly  obtained  the  support  of  the  army  leaders  and  prepared  covertly  for 
the  boldest  stroke  of  his  life.    On  the  2d  of  December,  1851, —   The  Coup  d'etat 
the  anniversary  of  the  establishment  of  the  first  empire  and      of  Louis 
of  the  battle  of  Austerlitz, — he  got  rid  of  his  opponents  by      NaP°leon 
means  of  the  memorable  coupd 'etal,  and  seized  the  supreme  power  of  the  state. 

The  most  influential  members  of  the  Assembly  had  been  arrested  during 
the  preceding  night,  and  when  the  hour  for  the  session  of  the  House  came 
the  men  most  strongly  opposed  to  the  usurper  were  in  prison.  Most  of 
them  were  afterwards  exiled,  some  for  life,  some  for  shorter  terms.  This 
act  of  outrage  and  violation  of  the  plighted  faith  of  the  president  roused 
the  Socialists  and  Republicans  to  the  defence  of  their  threatened  liberties, 
insurrections  broke  out  in  Paris,  Lyons,  and  other  towns,  street  barricades 
were  built,  and  severe  fighting  took  place.  But  Napoleon  had  secured  the 
army,  and  the  revolt  was  suppressed  with  blood  and  slaughter.  Baudin,  one 
of  the  deposed  deputies,  was  shot  on  the  barricade  in  the  Faubourg  St. 
Antoine,  while  waving  in  his  hand  the  decree  of  the  constitution.  He  was 
afterwards  honored 'as  a  martyr  to  the  cause  of  republicanism  in  France. 


i82  THE  SECOND  FRENCH  EMPIRE 

The  usurper  had  previously  sought  to  gain  the  approval  of  the  people 
by  liberal  and  charitable  acts,  and  to  win  the  goodwill  of  the  civic  authori- 
How  Napoleon  ties  by  numerous  progresses  through  the  interior.  He  posed 
Won  Popular  as  a  protector  and  promoter  of  national  prosperity  and  the 
Support  rights  of  the  people,  and  sought  to  lay  upon  the  Assembly  all 

the  defects  of  his  administration.  By  these  means,  which  aided  to  awaken 
the  Napoleonic  fervor  in  the  state,  he  was  enabled  safely  to  submit  his  acts 
of  violence  and  bloodshed  to  the  approval  of  the  people.  The  new  consti- 
tution offered  by  the  president  was  put  to  vote,  and  was  adopted  by  the 
enormous  majority  of  more  than  seven  million  votes.  By  its  terms  Louis 
Napoleon  was  to  be  president  of  France  for  ten  years,  with  the  power  of  a 
monarch,  and  the  Parliament  was  to  consist  of  two  bodies,  a  Senate  and  a 
Legislative  House,  which  were  given  only  nominal  power. 

This  was  as   far  as  Napoleon  dared  to  venture  at  that   time.     A  year 

Louis  Napoleon    ^ater»  on  December  i,  1852,  having  meanwhile  firmly  cemented 

is  Elected         his   power,  he  passed  from  president  to  emperor,  again  by  a 

vote  of  the  people,  of  whom,  according  to  the  official  report, 

7,824,189  cast  their  votes  in  his  favor. 

Thus  ended  the  second  French  republic,  an  act  of  usurpation  of  the 
basest  and  most  unwarranted  character.  The  partisans  of  the  new  emperor 
were  rewarded  with  the  chief  offices  of  the  state  ;  the  leading  republicans 
languished  in  prison  or  in  exile  for  the  crime  of  doing  their  duty  to  their 
constituents ;  and  Armand  Manrest,  the  most  zealous  champion  of  the 
republic,  died  of  a  broken  heart  from  the  overthrow  of  all  his  efforts  and 
aspirations.  The  honest  soldier  and  earnest  patriot,  Cavaignac,  in  a  few 
years  followed  him  to  the  grave.  The  cause  of  liberty  in  France  seemed  lost. 

The  crowning  of  a  new  emperor  of  the  Napoleonic  family  in  France 
naturally  filled  Europe  with  apprehensions.  But  Napoleon  III.,  as  he 
styled  himself,  was  an  older  man  than  Napoleon  I.,  and  seemingly  less 
likely  to  be  carried  away  by  ambition.  His  favorite  motto,  "  The  Empire 
is  peace,"  aided  to  restore  quietude,  and  gradually  the  nations  began  to 
trust  in  his  words,  "  France  wishes  for  peace  ;  and  when  France  is  satisfied 
the  world  is  quiet." 

Warned  by  one  of  the  errors  of  his  uncle,  he  avoided  seeking  a  wife  in 
the  royal  families  of  Europe,  but  allied  himself  with  a  Spanish  lady  of  noble 
rank,  the  young  and  beautiful  Eugenie  de  Montijo,  duchess  of 
Teba-  At  the  same  time  he  proclaimed  that,  "A  sovereign 
raised  to  the  throne  by  a  new  principle  should  remain  faithful 
to  that  principle,  and  in  the  face  of  Europe  frankly  accept  the  position  of 
a  parvenu,  which  is  an  honorable  title  when  it  is  obtained  by  the  public 


THE  SECOND  FRENCH  EMPIRE  183 

suffrage  of  a  great  people.  For  seventy  years  all  princes'  daughters  mar- 
ried to  rulers  of  France  have  been  unfortunate  ;  only  one,  Josephine,  was 
remembered  with  affection  by  the  French  people,  and  she  was  not  born  of  a 
royal  house." 

The  new  emperor  sought  by  active  public  works  and  acts  of  charity 
to  win  the  approval  of  the  people.  He  recognized  the  necessity  of  aiding 
the  working  classes  as  far  as  possible,  and  protecting  them  from  poverty  and 
wretchedness.  During  a  dearth  in  1853  a  "baking  fund"  was  organized  in 
Paris,  the  city  contributing  funds  to  enable  bread  to  be  sold  at  a  low  price. 
Dams  and  embankments  were  built  along  the  rivers  to  overcome  the  effects 
of  floods.  New  streets  were  opened,  bridges  built,  railways  constructed,  to 
increase  internal  traffic.  Splendid  buildings  were  erected  for  pubiic  Works 
municipal  and  government  purposes.  Paris  was  given  a  new  in  Paris  and 
aspect  by  pulling  down  its  narrow  lanes,  and  building  wide  Fr«nce 
streets  and  magnificent  boulevards — the  latter,  as  was  charged,  for  the 
purpose  of  depriving  insurrection  of  its  lurking  places.  The  great  exhibi- 
tion of  arts  and  industries  in  London  was  followed  in  1854  by  one  in 
France,  the  largest  and  finest  seen  up  to  that  time.  Trade  and  industry 
were  fostered  by  a  reduction  of  tariff  charges,  joint  stock  companies  and 
credit  associations  were  favored,  and  in  many  ways  Napoleon  III.  worked 
wisely  and  well  for  the  prosperity  of  France,  the  growth  of  its  industries, 
and  the  improvement  of  the  condition  of  its  people. 

But  the  new  emperor,  while  thus  actively  engaged  in  labors  of  peace, 
by  no  means  lived  up  to  the  spirit  of  his  motto,  "  The  Empire  is  peace." 
An  empire  founded  upon  the  army  needs  to  give  employment  to  that  army. 
A  monarchy  sustained  by   the  votes  of  a  people  athirst  for   The  Ambition 
glory  needs  to  do  something  to  appease  that  thirst.    A  throne      of  the  Em- 
filled   by  a  Napoleon    could    not    safely   ignore    the   "  Napo-      pero 
Iconic  Ideas,"  and  the  first  of  these  might  be  stated  as  "  The  Empire  is 
war."     And  the  new  emperor  was  by  no  means  satisfied  to  pose  simply  as 
the  "  nephew  of  his  uncle."     He  possessed  a  large  share  of  the  Napoleonic 
ambition,  and  hoped  by  military  glory  to  surround  his  throne  with  some  of 
the  lustre  of  that  of  Napoleon  the  First. 

Whatever  his  private  views,  it  is  certain  that  France  under  his  reign 
became  the  most  aggressive  nation  of  Europe,  and  the  overweening 
ambition  and  self-confidence  of  thi£  new  emperor  led  him  to  the  same  end 
as  his  great  uncle,  that  of  disaster  and  overthrow. 

The  very  beginning  of  Louis  Napoleon's  career  of  greatness,  as  presi- 
dent of  the  French  Republic,  was  signalized  by  an  act  of  military  aggression, 
in  sending  his  army  to  Rome  and  putting  an  end  to  the  new  Italian  repub- 


1 84  THE  SECOND  FRENCH  EMPIRE 

lie.  These  troops  were  kept  there  until  1866,  and  the  aspirations  of  the 
Italian  patriots  were  held  in  check  until  that  year.  Only  when  United  Italy 
stood  menacingly  at  the  gates  of  Rome  were  these  foreign  troops  with- 
drawn. 

In  1854  Napoleon  allied  himself  with  the  British  and  the  Turks  against 

Russia,  and  sent  an  army  to  the  Crimea,  which  played  an  effective  part  in 

that  great  struggle  in  that  peninsula.     The  troops  of  France 

the  Crimea       ^a(^  t^le   nonor  of  rendering    Sebastopol    untenable,  carrying 

by  storm  one  of  its  two  great  fortresses   and   turning  its  guns 

upon  the  city. 

The  next  act  of  aggression  of  the  French  emperor  was  against  Aus- 
tria. As  the  career  of  conquest  of  Napoleon  I.  had  begun  with  an  attack 
upon  the  Austrians  in  Italy,  Napoleon  III.  attempted  a  similar  enterprise, 
and  with  equal  success.  He  had  long  been  cautiously  preparing  in  secret 
for  hostilities  with  Austria,  but  lacked  a  satisfactory  excuse  for  declaring 
Qrsini's  At-  wan  This  came  in  1858  from  an  attempt  at  assassination. 
temptatAs-  Felice  Orsini,  a  fanatical  Italian  patriot,  incensed  at  Napoleon 
sassination  £rom  j^  fajjjng  to  come  to  tne  aid  of  Italy,  launched  three 
explosive  bombs  against  his  carriage.  This  effect  was  fatal  to  many  of  the 
people  in  the  street,  though  the  intended  victim  escaped.  Orsini  won  sym- 
pathy while  in  prison  by  his  patriotic  sentiments  and  the  steadfastness  of 
his  love  for  his  country.  "  Remember  that  the  Italians  shed  their  blood  for 
Napoleon  the  great,"  he  wrote  to  the  emperor.  "  Liberate  my  country,  and 
the  blessings  of  twenty-five  millions  of  people  will  follow  you  to  posterity." 
Louis  Napoleon  had  once  been  a  member  of  a  secret  political  society 
of  Italy ;  he  had  taken  the  oath  of  initiation  ;  his  failure  to  come  to  the  aid 
of  that  country  when  in  power  constituted  him  a  traitor  to  his  oath  and  one 
doomed  to  death  ;  the  act  of  Orsini  seemed  the  work  of  the  society.  That 
he  was  deeply  moved  by  the  attempted  assassination  is  certain,  and  the  re- 
sult of  his  combined  fear  and  ambition  was  soon  to  be  shown. 

On  New  Year's  Day,  1859,  while  receiving  the  diplomatic  corps  at  the 
Tuileries,  Napoleon  addressed  the  following  significant  words  to  the  Aus- 
trian ambassador :  "  I  regret  that  our  relations  are  not  so  cordial  as  I  could 
wish,  but  I  beg  you  to  report  to  the  Emperor  that  my  personal  sentiments 
towards  him  remain  unaltered." 

The  Warlike  Such  is  the  masked  way  in  which  diplomats  announce  an 

Attitude  of       intention  of  war.     The  meaning  of  the  threatening  words  was 

Franceand       soon    shown,    when    Victor    Emmanuel,    shortly   afterwards, 

announced  at  the  opening  of    the   Chambers    in  Turin    that 

Sardinia  could  no  longer  remain  indifferent  to  the  cry  for  help  which  was 


THE  SECOND  FRENCH  EMPIRE  185 

rising  from  all  Italy.  Ten  years  had  passed  since  the  defeat  of  the  Sar- 
dinians on  the  plains  of  Lombardy.  During  that  time  they  had  cherished 
a  hope  of  retribution,  and  it  was  now  evident  that  an  alliance  had  been 
made  with  France  and  that  the  hour  of  vengeance  was  at  hand. 

Austria  was  ready  for  the  contest.  Her  finances,  indeed,  were  in  a 
serious  state,  but  she  had  a  large  army  in  Lombardy.  This  was  increased, 
Lombardy  was  declared  in  a  state  of  siege,  and  every  step  was  taken  to 
guard  against  assault  from  Sardinia.  Delay  was  disadvantageous  to  Austria, 
as  it  would  permit  her  enemies  to  complete  their  preparations,  and  on  April 
23,  1859,  an  ultimatum  came  from  Vienna,  demanding  that  Sardinia  should 
put  her  army  on  a  peace  footing  or  war  would  ensue, 

A  refusal    came    from    Turin.      Immediately  field-marshal    Gyulai    re- 
ceived orders  to  cross  the  Ticino.     Thus,  after  ten  years  of  peace,  the  beau- 
tiful plains  of  Northern  Italy  were  once   more   to  endure  the    Advance  of  the 
ravages  of  war.     This   act  of  Austria  was   severely  criticised      Austrian 
by  the  neutral  powers,  which  had   been   seeking  to   allay  the      Army 
trouble.     Napoleon  took  advantage  of  it,  accusing  Austria  of  breaking  the 
peace  by  invading  the  territory  of  his  ally,  the  king  of  Sardinia. 

The  real  fault  committed  by  Austria,  under  the  circumstances,  was  not 
in  precipitating  war,  which  could  not  well  be  avoided  in  the  temper  of  her 
antagonists,  but  in  putting,  through  court  favor  and  privileges  of  rank,  an 
incapable  leader  at  the  head  of  the  army.  Old  Radetzky,  the  victor  in  the 
last  war,  was  dead,  but  there  were  other  able  leaders  who  were  thrust  aside 
in  favor  of  the  Hungarian  noble  Franz  Gyulai,  a  man  without  experience 
as  commander-in-chief  of  an  army. 

By  his  uncertain  and  dilatory  movements  Gyulai  gave  the  Sardinians 
time  to  concentrate  an  army  of  80,000  men  around  the  fortress  of  Aless- 
andria, and  lost  all  the  advantage  of  being  the  first  in  the  field.  In  early 
May  the  French  army  reached  Italy,  partly  by  way  of  the  St.  Bernard  Pass, 
partly  by  sea  ;  and  Garibaldi,  with  his  mountaineers,  took  up  a  position  that 
would  enable  him  to  attack  the  right  wing  of  the  Austrians. 

Later  in  the  month  Napoleon  himself  appeared,  his  presence  and  the 
name  he  bore  inspiring  the  soldiers  with  new  valor,  while  his   TheFrenchln 
first  order  of  the  day,  in  which  he  recalled  the  glorious  deeds      Italy  and  the 
which  their_  fathers  had  done  on  those  plains  under  his  great      March  on 
uncle,  roused  them  to  the  highest  enthusiasm.     While  assum- 
ing the  title  of  commander-in-chief,  he  left  the  conduct  of  the  war  to  his  able 
subordinates,  MacMahon,  Niel,  Canrobert,  and  others. 

The  Austrian  general,  having  lost  the  opportunity  to  attack,  was  now 
put  on  the  defensive,  in  which  his  incompetence  was  equally  manifested. 


1 86  THE  SECOND  FRENCH  EMPIRE 

Being  quite  ignorant  of  the  position  of  the  foe,  he  sent  Count  Stadion,  with 
12,000  men,  on  a  reconnoisance.  An  encounter  took  place  at  Montebello 
on  May  2Oth,  in  which,  after  a  sharp  engagement,  Stadion  was  forced  to 
retreat.  Gyulai  directed  his  attention  to  that  quarter,  leaving  Napoleon  to 
march  unmolested  from  Alessandria  to  the  invasion  of  Lombardy.  Gyulai 
now,  aroused  by  the  danger  of  Milan,  began  his  retreat  across  the  Ticino, 
which  he  had  so  uselessly  crossed. 

The  road  to  Milan  crossed  the  Ticino  River  and  the  Naviglio  Grande, 
a  broad  and  deep  canal  a  few  miles  east  of  the  river.  Some  distance  farther 
on  lies  the  village  ol"  Magenta,  the  seat  of  the  first  great  battle  of  the  war. 
Sixty  years  before,  on  those  Lombard  plains,  Napoleon  the  Great  had  first 

lost,  and    then,   by  a  happy  chance,    won  the    famous  battle 
of  Blunders      °^  Marengo.     The    Napoleon    now    in    command  was  a  very 

different  man  from  the  mighty  soldier  of  the  year  1800,  and 
the  French  escaped  a  disastrous  rout  only  because  the  Austrians  were  led 
by  a  worse  general  still.  Some  one  has  said  that  victory  comes  to  the  army 
that  makes  the  fewest  blunders.  Such  seems  to  have  been  the  case  in  the 
batt.le  of  Magenta,  where  military  genius  was  the  one  thing  wanting. 

The  French  pushed  on,  crossed  the  river  without  finding  a  man  to  dis- 
pute the  passage, — other  than  a  much-surprised  customs  official, — and 
reached  an  undefended  bridge  across  the  canal.  The  high  road  to  Milan 
seemed  deserted  by  the  Austrians.  But  Napoleon's  troops  were  drawn  out 
in  a  preposterous  line,  straddling  a  river  and  a  canal,  both  difficult  to  cross, 
and  without  any  defensive  positions  to  hold  against  an  attack  in  force.  He 
supposed  that  the  Austrians  were  stretched  out  in  a  similar  long  line. 
This  was  not  the  case.  Gyulai  had  all  the  advantages  of  position,  and 
might  have  concentrated  his  army  and  crushed  the  advanced  corps  of  the 
French  if  he  had  known  his  situation  and  his  business.  As  it  was,  between 
ignorance  on  the  one  hand  and  indecision  on  the  other,  the  battle  was 
fought  with  about  equal  forces  on  either  hand. 

The  first   contest  took  place  at  Buffalora,  a  village  on  the  canal  where 

the    French    encountered    the    Austrians    in    force.      Here    a 

Buffalora  and        111  •<  r         \  i  •          •         i 

Magenta  bloody  struggle  went    on    lor    hours,    ending   in   the  capture 

of  the  place  by  the  Grenadiers  of  the  Guard,  who  held  on  to 
It  afterwards  with  stubborn  courage. 

General  MacMahon,  in  command  of  the  advance,  had  his  orders  to 
march  forward,  whatever  happened,  to  the  church-tower  of  Magenta,  and, 
in  strict  obedience  to  orders,  he  pushed  on,  leaving  the  grenadiers  to  hold 
their  own  as  best  they  could  at  Buffalora,  and  heedless  of  the  fact  that  the 
reserve  troops  of  the  army  had  not  yet  begun  to  cross  the  river.  It  was 


THE  SECOND  FRENCH  EMPIRE  187 

the  5th  of  June,  and  the  day  was  well  advanced  when  MacMahon  came  in 
contact  with  the  Austrians  at  Magenta,  and  the  great  contest  of  the  day 
began. 

It  was  a  battle  in  which  the  commanders  on  both  sides,  with  the  excep- 
tion of  MacMahon,  showed  lack  of  military  skill  and  the  soldiers  on  both 
sides  the  staunchest  courage.  The  Austrians  seemed  devoid  of  plan  or 
system,  and  their  several  divisions  were  beaten  in  detail  by  the  French.  On 
the  other  hand,  General  Camou,  in  command  of  the  second  division  of 
MacMahon's  corps,  acted  as  Desaix  had  done  at  the  battle  of 

...  i      r     i         T  T->  Camou's  Delib- 

Marengo,  marched  at  the  sound  of  the  distant  cannon.      But,       erate  March 

unlike  Desaix,  he  moved  so  deliberately  that  it  took  him  six 

hours  to  make  less  than  five  miles.     He  was  a  tactician  of  the  old  school, 

imbued  with  the  idea  that  every  march  should  be  made  in  perfect  order. 

At  half-past  four  MacMahon,  with  his  uniform  in  disorder  and  followed 
by  a  few  officers  of  his  staff,  dashed  back  to  hurry  up  this  deliberate  reserve. 
On  the  way  thither  he  rode  into  a  body  of  Austrian  sharpshooters.  For- 
tune favored  him.  Not  dreaming  of  the  presence  of  the  French  general, 
they  saluted  him  as  one  of  their  own  commanders.  On  his  way  back  he 
made  a  second  narrow  escape  from  capture  by  the  Uhlans. 

The  drums  now  beat  the  charge,  and  a  determined  attack  was  made  by 
the  French,  the  enemy's  main  column  being  taken  between  two  fires.  Des- 
perately resisting,  it  was  forced  back  step  by  step  upon  Magenta.  Into  the 
town  the  columns  rolled,  and  the  fight  became  fierce  around  the  church. 
High  in  the  tower  of  this  edifice  stood  the  Austrian  general  and  his  staff, 
watching  the  fortunes  of  the  fray  ;  and  from  this  point  he  caught  sight  of 
the  four  regiments  of  Camou,  advancing  as  regularly  as  if  on  parade. 
They  were  not  given  the  chance  to  fire  a  shot  or  receive  a  scratch,  eager  as 
they  were  to  take  part  in  the  fight.  At  sight  of  them  the  The  French 
Austrian  general  ordered  a  retreat  and  the  battle  was  at  an  Victory  at 
end.  The  French  owed  their  victory  largely  to  General 
Mellinet  and  his  Grenadiers  of  the  Guard,  who  held  their  own  like  bull-dogs 
at  Buffalora  while  Camou  was  advancing  with  the  deliberation  of  the  old 
military  rules.  MacMahon  and  Mellinet  and  the  French  had  won  the  day. 
Victor  Emmanuel  and  the  Sardinians  did  not  reach  the  ground  until  after 
the  battle  was  at  end.  For  his  services  on  that  day  of  glory  for  France 
MacMahon  was  made  Marshal  of  France  and  Duke  of  Magenta. 

The  prize  of  the  victory  of  Magenta  was  the  possession  of  Lombardy. 
Gyulai,  unable  to  collect  his  scattered  divisions,  gave  orders  for  a  general 
retreat.  Milan  was  evacuated  with  precipitate  haste,  and  the  garrisons 
were  withdrawn  from  all  the  towns,  leaving  them  to  be  occupied  by  the 


1 88  THE  SECOND  FRENCH  EMPIRE 

French  and  Italians.  On  the  8th  of  June  Napoleon  and  Victor  Emmanuel 
rode  into  Milan  side  by  side,  amid  the  loud  acclamations  of  the  people, 
who  looked  upon  this  victory  as  an  assurance  of  Italian  freedom  and  unity. 
Meanwhile  the  Austrians  retreated  without  interruption,  not 
Quadrilateral  halting  until  they  arrived  at  the  Mincio,  where  they  were  pro- 
tected by  the  famous  Quadrilateral,  consisting  of  the  four 
powerful  fortresses  of  Peschiera,  Mantua,  Verona,  and  Leguano,  the  main- 
stay of  the  Austrian  power  in  Italy. 

The  French  and  Italians  slowly  pursued  the  retreating  Austrians,  and 
on  the  23d  of  June  bivouacked  on  both  banks  of  the  Chiese  River,  about 
fifteen  miles  west  of  the  Mincio.  The  Emperor  Francis  Joseph  had 
recalled  the  incapable  Gyulai,  and,  in  hopes  of  inspiring  his  soldiers  with 
new  spirit,  himself  took  command.  The  two  emperors,  neither  of  them 
soldiers,  were  thus  pitted  against  each  other,  and  Francis  Joseph,  eager  to 
retrieve  the  disaster  at  Magenta,  resolved  to  quit  his  strong  position  of 
defence  in  the  Quadrilateral  and  assume  the  offensive. 

At  two  o'clock  in  the  morning  of  the  24th  the  allied  French  and 
Italian  army  resumed  its  march,  Napoleon's  orders  for  the  day  being  based 
upon  the  reports  of  his  reconnoitering  parties  and  spies.  These  led  him 
to  believe  that,  although  a  strong  detachment  of  the  enemy  might  be 
encountered  west  of  the  Mincio,  the  main  body  of  the  Austrians  was  await- 
ing him  on  the  eastern  side  of  the  river.  But  the  French  intelligence 
department  was  badly  served.  The  Austrians  had  stolen  a  march  upon 
Napoleon.  Undetected  by  the  French  scouts,  they  had  re- 

The  Armies         crossed  the  Mincio,  and  by  nightfall  of  the  23d  their  leading 
on  the  Mincio  .  ,  .  ,       , 

columns  were  occupying  the   ground   on   which   the   rrench 

were  ordered  to  bivouac  on  the  evening  of  the  24th.  The  intention  of  the 
Austrian  emperor,  now  commanding  his  army  in  person,  had  been  to  push 
forward  rapidly  and  fall  upon  the  allies  before  they  had  completed  the 
passage  of  the  river  Chiese.  But  this  scheme,  like  that  of  Napoleon,  was 
based  on  defective  information.  The  allies  broke  up  from  their  bivouacs 
many  hours  before  the  Austrians  expected  them  to  do  so,  and  when  the 
two  armies  came  in  contact  early  in  the  morning  of  the  24th  of  June  the  Aus 
trians  were  quite  as  much  taken  by  surprise  as  the  French. 

The  Austrian  army,  superior  in  numbers  to  its  opponents,  was  posted 
in  a  half-circle  between  the  Mincio  and  Chiese,  with  the  intention  of  press- 
ing forward  from  these  points  upon  a  centre.  But  the  line  was  extended 
too  far,  and  the  centre  was  comparatively  weak  and  without  reserves. 
Napoleon,  who  that  morning  received  complete  intelligence  of  the  position 
of  the  Austrian  army,  accordingly  directed  his  chief  strength  against  the 


THE  SECOND  FRENCH  EMPIRE  191 

enemy's  centre,  which  rested  upon  a  height  near  the  village  of  Solferino. 
Here,  on  the  24th  of  June,  after  a  murderous  conflict,  in  which  the  French 
commanders  hurled  continually  renewed  masses  against  the  decisive  posi- 
tion, while  on  the  other  side  the  Austrian  reinforcements  failed  through 
lack  of  unity  of  plan  and  decision  of  action,  the  heights  were  at  length  won 
by  the  French  troops  in  spite  of  heroic  resistance  on  the  part  of  the  Aus- 
trian soldiers  ;  the  Austrian  line  of  battle  being  cut  through,  and  the  arm) 
thus  divided  into  two  separate  masses.  A  second  attack  which  Napoleon 
promptly  directed  against  Cavriano  had  a  similar  result ;  for  the  commands 
given  by  the  Austrian  generals  were  confused  and  had  no  general  and 
definite  aim.  The  fate  of  the  battle  was  already  in  a  great 
measure  decided,  when  a  tremendous  storm  broke  forth  that 
put  an  end  to  the  combat  at  most  points,  and  gave  the  Aus- 
trians  an  opportunity  to  retire  in  order.  Only  Benedek,  who  had  twice 
beaten  back  the  Sardinians  at  various  points,  continued  the  struggle  for 
some  hours  longer.  On  the  French  side  Marshal  Niel  had  pre-eminently 
distinguished  himself  by  acuteness  and  bravery.  It  was  a  day  of  bloodshed, 
on  which  two  great  powers  had  measured  their  strength  against  each  other 
for  twelve  hours.  The  Austrians  had  to  lament  the  loss  of  13,000  dead 
and  wounded,  and  left  9,000  prisoners  in  the  enemy's  hands  ;  on  the  side  of 
the  French  and  Sardinians  the  number  of  killed  and  wounded  was  even 
greater,  for  the  repeated  attacks  had  been  made  upon  well-defended  heights, 
but  the  number  of  prisoners  was  not  nearly  so  great. 

The  victories    in    Italy  filled   the   French    people    with    the  warmest 
admiration  for  their  emperor,  they  thinking,   in  their  enthusiasm,    that   a 
true  successor  of  Napoleon  the  great  had  come  to  bring  glory   The  Feeling  in 
to  their  arms.     Italy  also  was  full  of  enthusiatic  hope,  fancying      France  and 
that  the  freedom  and  unity  of  the  Italians  was  at  last  assured. 
Both  nations  were,  therefore,  bitterly  disappointed  in  learning  that  the  war 
was  at  an  end,  and  that  a  hasty  peace   had  been   arranged   between   the 
emperors,  which  left  the  hoped-for  work  but  half  achieved. 

Napoleon  estimated  his  position  better  than  his  people.  Despite  his 
victories,  his  situation  was  one  of  danger  and  difficulty.  The  army  had 
suffered  severely  in  its  brief  campaign,  and  the  Austrians  were  still  in  pos- 
session of- the  Quadrilateral,  a  square  of  powerful  fortresses  which  he  might 
seek  in  vain  to  reduce.  And  a  threat  of  serious  trouble  had  arisen  in  Ger- 
many. The  victorious  career  of  a  new  Napoleon  in  Italy  was  alarming.  It 
was  not  easy  to  forget  the  past.  The  German  powers,  though  they  had 
declined  to  come. to  the  aid  of  Austria,  were  armed  and  ready,  and  at  any 
moment  might  begin  a  hostile  movement  upon  the  Rhine. 


1 92  THE  SECOND  FRENCH  EMPIRE 

Napoleon,  wise  enough  to  secure  what  he  had  won,  without  hazarding 
its  loss,  arranged  a  meeting  with  the  Austrian  emperor,  whom  he  found 
A  Meetin   of       Qu^te  as  ready  for  peace.     The  terms  of  the  truce  arranged 
the  Emperors   between  them  were  that  Austria  should  abandon  Lombardy 
and  Treaty       to  the  line  of  the  Mincio,  almost   its  eastern  boundary,  and 
that  Italy  should  form  a  confederacy  under  the  presidency  of 
the  pope.     In  the  treaty  subsequently  made  only  the  first  of  these  condi- 
tions was   maintained,    Lombardy  passing  to   the   king  of    Sardinia.      He 
received   also   the   small   states   of   Central   Italy,  whose  tyrants  had   fled, 
ceding  to  Napoleon,  as  a  reward  for  his  assistance,  the  realm  of  Savoy  and 
the  city  and  territory  of  Nice. 

Napoleon  had  now  reached  the  summit  of  his  career.  In  the  succeed- 
ing years  the  French  were  to  learn  that  they  had  put  their  faith  in  a  hollow 
emblem  of  glory,  and  Napoleon  to  lose  the  prestige  he  had  gained  at  Ma- 
genta and  Solferino.  His  first  serious  mistake  was  when  he  yielded  to  the 
voice  of  ambition,  and,  taking  advantage  of  the  occupation  of  the  Ameri- 
cans in  their  civil  war,  sent  an  army  to  invade  Mexico. 

The  ostensible  purpose  of  this  invasion  was  to  collect  a  debt  which  the 
Mexicans  had  refused  to  pay,  and  Great  Britain  and  Spain  were  induced  to 
take  part  in  the  expedition.      But  their  forces  were  withdrawn 
of  Mexico         when  they  found  that  Napoleon  had  other  purposes  in  view, 
and  his  army  was  left  to  fight   its  battles  alone.     After  some 
sanguinary  engagements    the  Mexican    army  was   broken   into  a  series    of 
guerilla  bands,  incapable  of  facing    his  well-drilled   troops,  and    Napoleon 
proceeded  to  reorganize  Mexico  as  an   empire,  placing  the  Archduke  Maxi- 
milian of  Austria  on  the  throne. 

All  went  well  while  the  people  of  the  United  States  were  fighting  for 
their  national  union,  but  when  their  war  was  over  the  ambitious  French  em- 
peror was  soon  taught  that  he  had  committed  a  serious  error.  He  was  given 
plainly  to  understand  that  the  French  troops  could  only  be  kept  in  Mexico 
at  the  cost  of  a  war  with  the  United  States,  and  he  found  it  convenient  to 
withdraw  them  early  in  1867.  They  had  no  sooner  gone  than  the  Mexicans 
were  in  arms  against  Maximilian,  and  his  rash  determination  to  remain 
quickly  led  to  his  capture  and  execution  as  a  usurper. 

The  inaction  of  Napoleon   during  the  wars  which  Prussia  fought  with 

Denmark  and  Austria  gave  further  blows  to  his  prestige  in  France,  and  the 

Napoleon  Loses    opposition    to    his    policy  of    personal    government   grew    so 

Prestige  in       strong  that  he  felt  himself  obliged  to  submit   his   policy  to  a 

vote   of  the   people.      He  was  sustained  by  a  large  majority. 

Yet  he  perceived  that  his  power  was  sinking.    He  was  obliged  to  loosen  the 


THE  SECOND  FRENCH  EMPIRE  193 

reins  of  government  at  home,  though  knowing  that  the  yielding  of  increased 
liberty  to  the  people  would  weaken  his  own  control.  Finally,  finding  him- 
self failing  in  health,  confidence,  and  reputation,  he  yielded  to  advisers  who 
told  him  that  the  only  hope  for  his  dynasty  lay  in  a  successful  war,  and  un- 
dertook the  war  of  1870  against  Prussia. 

The  origin  and  events  of  this  war  will  be  considered  in  a  subsequent 
chapter.  It  will  suffice  to  say  here  that  its  events  proved  Napoleon's  in- 
capacity as  a  military  emperor,  he  being  utterly  deceived  in  the  condition  of 
the  French  army  and  unwarrantably  ignorant  of  that  of  the  Germans.  He 
believed  that  the  army  of  France  was  in  the  highest  condition  of  organiza- 
tion and  completely  supplied,  when  the  very  contrary  was  the  case  ;  and  was 
similarly  deceived  concerning  the  state  of  the  military  force  of  Prussia. 
The  result  was  that  which  might  have  been  expected.  The  German  troops 
admirably  organized  and  excellently  commanded,  defeated  the  French  in  a 
series  of  engagments  that  fairly  took  the  breath  of  the  world  by  their 
rapidity  and  completeness,  ending  in  the  capture  of  Napoleon  and  his  army. 
As  a  consequence  the  second  empire  of  France  came  to  an  end  and 
Napoleon  lost  his  throne.  He  died  two  years  afterwards  an  exile  in  Eng- 
land, that  place  of  shelter  for  French  royal  refugees. 


CHAPTER  XIII. 
Garibaldi  and  the  Unification  of  Italy. 

FROM  the  time  of  the  fall  of  the  Roman  Empire  until  late  in  the  nine- 
teenth  century,  a  period  of  some  fourteen   hundred   years,  Italy  re- 
mained disunited,   divided   up  between  a  series  of  states,  small  and 
large,  hostile  and  peaceful,  while  its  territory  was  made  the  battlefield  of  the 
surrounding  powers,  the  helpless  prey  of  Germany,  France,  and  Spain.     Even 

the  strong-  hand  of  Napoleon  failed  to  bring-  it  unity,  and  after  his 
Lack  of  Italian  r  ..  .  S  ,.  .  .  7  A  •  ,  ,, 

Unity  **"*  lts  condition  was  worse  than  before,  for  Austria  held  most 

of  the  north  and  exerted  a  controlling  power  over  the  remainder 
of  the  peninsula,  so  that  the  fair  form  of  liberty  fled  in  dismay  from  its  shores. 
But  the  work  of  Napoleon  had  inspired  the  patriots  of  Italy  with  a  new 
sentiment,  that   of  union.      Before    the   Napoleonic    era  the  thought  of    a 
united  Italy  scarcely  existed,  and  patriotism   meant  adherence  to  Sardinia, 
Naples,  or  some  other  of  the  many  kingdoms  and  duchies.     After  that  era 
union  became  the  watchword  of  the  revolutionists,  who  felt  that  the  only 
hope  of  giving   Italy  a  position  of  dignity  and  honor  among  the  nations 
Italian  Unity       ^aY  m    making  it  one   country  under  one   ruler.     The  history 
and  its  of  the    nineteenth  century   in    Italy   is  the  record  of  the  at- 

tempt to  reach  this  end,  and  its  successful  accomplishment. 
And  on  that  record  the  names  of  two  men  most  prominently  appear, 
Mazzini,  the  indefatigable  conspirator,  and  Garibaldi,  the  valorous  fighter ; 
to  whose  names  should  be  added  that  of  the  eminent  statesmen,  Count 
Cavour,  and  that  of  the  man  who  reaped  the  benefit  of  their  patriotic 
labors,  Victor  Emmanuel,  the  first  king  of  united  Italy. 

The  basis  of   the   revolutionary  movements   in    Italy  was    the    secret 

political  association  known  as  the  Carbonari,  formed  early  in  the  nineteenth 

century  and  including  members  of  all  classes  in   its  ranks.     In    1814  this 

powerful    society  projected    a    revolution  in   Naples,   and    in   1820    it    was 

The  Carbonari      strong  enough  to  invade  Naples  with  an  army  and  force  from 

the  king  an  oath  to  observe  the  new  constitution  which  it  had 

prepared.     The  revolution  was  put  down  in  the  following  year  by  the  Aus- 

trians,   acting    as    the    agents    of   the    "  Holy  Alliance," — the    compact    of 

Austria,  Prussia,  and  Russia. 

(194) 


GARIBALDI  AND  THE  UNIFICATION  OF  ITALY  195 

An  ordinance  was  passed,  condemning  any  one  who  should  attend  a 
meeting  of  the  Carbonari  to  capital  punishment.  But  the  society  continued 
to  exist,  despite  this  severe  enactment,  and  has  been  at  the  basis  of  many 
of  the  outbreaks  that  have  taken  place  in  Italy  since  1820.  Mazzini,  Gari- 
baldi, and  all  the  leading  patriots  were  members  of  this  powerful  organiza- 
tion, which  was  daring  enough  to  condemn  Napoleon  III.  to  death,  and 
almost  to  succeed  in  his  assassination,  for  his  failure  to  live  up  to  his  obliga- 
tions as  a  member  of  the  society. 

Giuseppe  Mazzini,  a  native  of  Genoa,   became  a  member  of  the  Car- 
bonari in  1830.      His  activity  in  revolutionary  movements  caused  him  soon 
after  to  be  proscribed,  and  in  1831  he  sought  Marseilles,  where  he  organized 
a  new  political  society  called  "  Young  Italy,"  whose  watchword 
was  "  God  and  the  People,"  and  whose  basic  principle  was  the       Patriot 
union  of  the  several  states  and  kingdoms  into  one  nation,  as 
the  only  true  foundation  of  Italian  liberty.     This  purpose  he  avowed  in  hi? 
writings  and  pursued  through  exile  and  adversity  with  inflexible  constancy,  anc 
it  is  largely  due  to  the  work  of  this  earnest  patriot  that  Italy  to-day  is  a  single 
kingdom  instead  of  a  medley  of  separate  states.     Only  in  one  particular  did 
he  fail.      His  persistent  purpose  was  to  establish  a  republic,  not  a  monarchy. 

While  Mazzini  was  thus  working  with  his  pen,  his  compatriot,  Giuseppe 
Garibaldi,  was   working  as   earnestly  with   his  sword.      This 
daring  soldier,   a  native   of  Nice  and  reared  to  a  life  on  the 
sea,  was  banished  as  a  revolutionist  in   1834,  and  the  succeed- 
ing fourteen  years  of  his  life  were  largely  spent  in  South  America,  in  whose 
wars  he  played  a  leading  part. 

The  revolution  of  1848  opened  Italy  to  these  two  patriots,  and  they 
hastened  to  return,  Garibaldi  to  offer  his  services  to  Charles  Albert  of 
Sardinia,  by  whom,  however,  he  was  treated  with  coldness  and  distrust. 
Mazzini,  after  founding  the  Roman  republic  in  1849,  called  upon  Garibaldi 
to  come  to  its  defence,  and  the  latter  displayed  the  greatest  heroism  in  the 
contest  against  the  Neapolitan  and  French  invaders.  He  escaped  from 
Rome  on  its  capture  by  the  French,  and,  after  many  desperate  conflicts  and 
adventures  with  the  Austrians,  was  again  driven  into  exile,  and  in  1850  became 
a  resident  of  New  York.  For  some  time  he  worked  in  a  manufactory  of 
candles  on  Staten  Island,  and  afterwards  made  several  voyages  on  the  Pacific. 

The  war  of   1859  opened  a  new  and  promising  channel  for  the  devo- 
tion of  Garibaldi  to  his  native  land.      Being  appointed  major- 
general    and    commissioned    to   raise    a   volunteer  corps,    he 
organized  the  hardy  body  of  mountaineers  called  the  "  Hunters 
of    the  Alps,"  and 'with   them   performed  prodigies  of  valor   on  the  plains 

XI 


I96  GARIBALDI  AND  THE  UNIFICATION  OF  ITALY 

of  Lombardy,  winning  victories  over  the  Austrians  at  Varese,  Como 
and  other  places.  In  his  ranks  was  his  fellow-patriot  Mazzini. 

The  success  of  the  French  and  Sardinians  in  Lombardy  during  this 
war  stirred  Italy  to  its  centre.  The  grand  duke  of  Tuscany  fled  to  Aus- 
tria. The  duchess  of  Parma  sought  refuge  in  Switzerland.  The  duke 
of  Modena  found  shelter  in  the  Austrian  camp.  Everywhere  the  brood  of 
tyrants  took  to  flight.  Bologna  threw  off  its  allegiance  to  the  pope,  and 
proclaimed  the  king  of  Sardinia  dictator.  Several  other  towns  in  the 
states  of  the  Church  did  the  same.  In  the  terms  of  the  truce  between 
Louis  Napoleon  and  Francis  Joseph  the  rulers  of  these  realms  were  to 
resume  their  reigns  if  the  people  would  permit.  But  the  people  would  not 
permit,  and  they  were  all  annexed  to  Sardinia,  which  country  was  greatly 
expanded  as  a  result  of  the  war. 

It  will  not  suffice  to  give  all  the  credit  for  these  revolutionary  move- 
ments to  Mazzini,  the  organizer,  Garibaldi,  the  soldier,  and  the  ambitious 
monarchs  of  France  and  Sardinia.  More  important  than  king  and  emperor 
was  the  eminent  statesman,  Count  Cavour,  prime  minister  of  Sardinia  from 
1852.  It  is  to  this  able  man  that  the  honor  of  the  unification  of  Italy  most 
Count  Cavour  fully  belongs,  though  he  did  not  live  to  see  it.  He  sent  a 
the  Brain  of  Sardinian  army  to  the  assistance  of  France  and  England  in 
the  Crimea  in  1855,  and  by  this  act  gave  his  state  a  standing 
among  the  powers  of  Europe.  He  secured  liberty  of  the  press  and  favored 
toleration  in  religion  and  freedom  of  trade.  He  rebelled  against  the 
dominion  of  the  papacy,  and  devoted  his  abilities  to  the  liberation  and 
unity  of  Italy,  undismayed  by  the  angry  fulminations  from  the  Vatican. 
The  war  of  1859  was  his  work,  and  he  had  the  satisfaction  of  seeing 
Sardinia  increased  by  the  addition  of  Lombardy,  Tuscany,  Parma  and 
Modena.  A  great  step  had  been  taken  in  the  work  to  which  he  had 
devoted  his  life. 

The  next  step  in   the  great  work  was  taken  by  Garibaldi,  who  now 

struck   at   the   powerful   kingdom   of   Naples  and  Sicily  in  the  south.      It 

Garibaldi's  in-     seemed  a  difficult  task.      Francis  II.,  the  son  and  successor  of 

vasionof          the  infamous  "King  Bomba,"  had  a  well-organized  army  of 

150,000  men.      But   his  father's   tyranny  had  filled  the    land 

with   secret  societies,  and  fortunately  at  this   time  the  Swiss  mercenaries 

were  recalled  home,  leaving  to  Francis  only  his  unsafe  native  troops.      This 

was  the  critical  interval  which  Mazzini  and  Garibaldi  chose  for  their  work. 

At  the  beginning  of  April,  1860,  the  signal  was  given  by  separate 
insurrections  in  Messina  and  Palermo.  These  were  easily  suppressed  by 
the  troops  in  garrison  ;  but  though  both  cities  were  declared  in  a  state  of 


GARIBALDI  AND  THE  UNIFICATION  OF  ITALY  197 

siege,  they  gave  occasion  for  demonstrations  by  which  the  revolutionary 
chiefs  excited  the  public  mind.  On  the  6th  of  May,  Garibaldi  started  with 
two  steamers  from  Genoa  with  about  a  thousand  Italian  volunteers,  and  on 
the  iith  landed  near  Marsala,  on  the  west  coast  of  Sicily.  He  proceeded 
to  the  mountains,  and  near  Salemi  gathered  round  him  the  scattered  bands 
of  the  free  corps.  By  the  i4th  his  army  had  increased  to  4,000  men.  He 
now  issued  a  proclamation,  in  which  he  took  upon  himself  the  dictatorship 
of  Sicily,  in  the  name  of  Victor  Emmanuel,  king  of  Italy.  After  waging 
various  successful  combats  under  the  most  difficult  circumstances,  Garibaldi 
advanced  upon  the  capital,  announcing  his  arrival  by  beacon-fires  kindled 
at  night.  On  the  27th  he  was  in  front  of  the  Porta  Termina  of  Palermo, 
and  at  once  gave  the  signal  for  the  attack.  The  people  rose 
in  mass,  and  assisted  the  operations  of  the  besiegers  by 
barricade-fighting  in  the  streets.  In  a  few  hours  half  the 
town  was  in  Garibaldi's  hands.  But  now  General  Lanza,  whom  the  young 
king  had  dispatched  with  strong  reinforcements  to  Sicily,  furiously  bom- 
barded the  insurgent  city,  so  that  Palermo  was  reduced  almost  to  a  heap  of 
ruins.  At  this  juncture,  by  the  intervention  of  an  English  admiral,  an  armistice 
was  concluded,  which  led  to  the  departure  of  the  Neapolitan  troops  and  war 
vessels  and  the  surrender  of  the  town  to  Garibaldi,  who  thus,  with  a  band 
of  5,000  badly  armed  followers,  had  gained  a  signal  advantage  over  a 
regular  army  of  25,000  men.  This  event  had  tremendous  consequences, 
for  it  showed  the  utter  hollowness  of  the  Neapolitan  government,  while 
Garibaldi's  fame  was  everywhere  spread  abroad.  The  glowing  fancy  of 
the  Italians  beheld  in  him  the  national  hero  before  whom  every  enemy 
would  bite  the  dust.  This  idea  seemed  to  extend  even  to  the  Neapolitan 
court  itself,  where  all  was  doubt,  confusion  and  dismay.  The  king  hastily 
summoned  a  liberal  ministry,  and  offered  to  restore  the  constitution  of 
1848,  but  the  general  verdict  was,  "too  late,"  and  his  proclamation  fell  flat 
on  a  people  who  had  no  trust  in  Bourbon  faith. 

The   arrival  of  Garibaldi  in  Naples  was   enough  to  set  in  blaze  all   the 
combustible  materials   in   that   state.      His  appearance    there 
was     not  long  delayed.     Six   weeks    after    the    surrender  of      Taken 
Palermo    he    marched    against    Messina.      On  the     2ist    of 
July  the  fortress    of    Melazzo  was    evacuated,   and    a    week    afterwards  all 
Messina  except  the  citadel  was  given  up. 

Europe  was  astounded  at  the  remarkable  success  of  Garibaldi's  handful 
of  men.  On  the  mainland  his  good  fortune  was  still  more  astonishing.  He 
had  hardly  landed — which  he  did  almost  in  the  face  of  the  Neapolitan  fleet 
— than  Reggio  was  surrendered  and  its  garrison  withdrew  His  progress 


I98  GARIBALDI  AND  THE  UNIFICATION  OF  ITALY 

through  the  south  of  the  kingdom  was  like  a  triumphal  procession.     At  the 

Flight  of  Francis  en<^  °^  August  he  was  at  Cosenza ;  on   the   5th  of  September 

ii.  and  Con-      at  Eboli,  near  Salerno.      No   resistance   appeared.      His  very 

quest  of  Naples  name  seerned   to  work   like   magic  on   the    population.      The 

capital   had  been  declared  in  a  state  of  siege,  and  on    September  6th   the 

king  took  flight,  retiring,  with   the  4,000  men  still  faithful  to  him,  behind 

the  Volturno.     The    next    day    Garibaldi,   with    a    few    followers,    entered 

Naples,  whose  populace  received  him  with  frantic  shouts  of  welcome. 

The  remarkable  achievements  of  Garibaldi  filled  all  Italy  with  over- 
mastering excitement.  He  had  declared  that  he  would  proclaim  the 
kingdom  of  Italy  from  the  heart  of  its  capital  city,  and  nothing  less  than 
this  would  content  the  people.  The  position  of  the  pope  had  become 
serious.  He  refused  to  grant  the  reforms  suggested  by  the 
H<f  til""?  French  emperor,  and  threatened  with  excommunication  any  one 

who  should  meddle  with  the  domain  of  the  Church.  Money 
was  collected  from  faithful  Catholics  throughout  the  world,  a  summons 
was  issued  calling  the  recruits  to  the  holy  army  of  the  pope,  and  the  exiled 
French  General  Lamoriciere  was  given  the  chief  command  of  the  troops, 
composed  of  men  who  had  flocked  to  Rome  from  many  nations  It  was 
hoped  that  the  name  of  the  celebrated  French  leader  would  have  a  favor- 
able influence  on  the  troops  of  the  French  garrison  of  Rome. 

The  settlement  of  the  perilous  situation  seemed  to  rest  with  Louis 
Napoleon.  If  he  had  let  Garibaldi  have  his  way  the  latter  would,  no  doubt, 
have  quickly  ended  the  temporal  sovereignly  of  the  pope  and  made  Rome 
the  capital  of  Italy.  But  Napoleon  seems  to  have  arranged  with  Cavour  to 
leave  the  king  of  Sardinia  free  to  take  possession  of  Naples,  Umbria  and 
the  other  provinces,  provided  that  Rome  and  the  "patrimony  of  St.  Peter" 
were  left  intact. 

At  the  beginning  of  September  two  Sardinian  army  corps,  under  Fanti 
and  Cialdini,  marched  to  the  borders  of  the  states  of  the  church.  Lamor- 
iciere advanced  against  Cialdini  with  his  motley  troops,  but 
ueHn  Notes'  was  clu'c^^y  defeated,  and  on  the  following  day  was  besieged 
in  the  fortess  of  Ancona.  On  the  2Qth  he  and  the  garrison 
surrendered  as  prisoners  of  war.  On  the  Qth  of  October  Victor  Emmanuel 
arrived  and  took  command.  There  was  no  longer  a  papal  army  to  oppose 
him,  and  the  march  southward  proceeded  without  a  check. 

The  object  of  the  king  in  assuming  the  chief  command  was  to  com- 
plete the  conquest  of  the  kingdom  of  Naples,  in  conjunction  with  Garibaldi. 
For  though  Garibaldi  had  entered  the  capital  in  triumph,  the  progress  on 
the  line  of  the  Volturno  had  been  slow ;  and  the  expectation  that  the 


THE   ZOUAVES   CHARGING   THE    BARRICADES   AT    MENTANA 

In  1867  Garibaldi   made  a  final   effort   to  take  the  city  of  Rome,  it  being  one  of  the  cherished  objects  of  his  life  to  make  it   the  capita* 

of  United  Italy.     He  would  have  succeeded  in  capturing  the  famous  city  had  not  the  French  come  to  the  aid  of  the  papal 

troops.     The  allied  forces  were  too  strong,  and  he  was  defeated  at   Mentana.     The  illustration  shows  the 

French  Zouaves  in  a  dashing  bayonet  charge  against  the  barricades  of  the  revolutionists. 


GARIBALDI  AND  THE  UNIFICATION  OF  ITALY  201 

Neapolitan  army  would  go  over  to  the  invaders  in  a  mass  had  not  been 
realized.  The  great  majority  of  the  troops  remained  faithful  to  the  flag,  so 
that  Garibaldi,  although  his  irregular  bands  amounted  to  more  than  25,000 
men,  could  not  hope  to  drive  away  King  Francis,  or  to  take  the  fortresses 
of  Capua  and  Gaeta,  without  the  help  of  Sardinia.  Against  the  diplomatic 
statesman  Cavour,  who  fostered  no  illusions,  and  saw  the  conditions  of 
affairs  in  its  true  light,  the  simple,  honest  Garibaldi  cherished  a  deep  aver- 
sion. He  could  never  forgive  Cavour  for  having  given  up  Nice,  Garibaldi's 
native  town,  to  the  French.  On  the  other  hand,  he  felt  at- 
tracted toward  the  king,  who  in  his  opinion  seemed  to  be  the 
man  raised  up  by  Providence  for  the  liberation  of  Italy. 
Accordingly,  when  Victor  Emmanuel  entered  Sessa,  at  the  head  of  his 
army,  Garibaldi  was  easily  induced  to  place  his  dictatorial  power  in  the 
hands  of  the  king,  to  whom  he  left  the  completion  of  the  work  of  the  union 
of  Italy.  After  greeting  Victor  Emmanuel  with  the  title  of  King  of  Italy, 
and  giving  the  required  resignation  of  his  power,  with  the  words,  "  Sire,  I 
obey,"  he  entered  Naples,  riding  beside  the  king;  and  then,  after  recom- 
mending his  companions  in  arms  to  his  majesty's  special  favor,  he  retired 
to  his  home  on  the  island  of  Caprera,  refusing  to  receive  a  reward,  in  any 
shape  or  form,  for  his  services  to  the  state  and  its  head. 

The  progress  of  the  Sardinian  army  compelled  Francis  to  give  up  the 
line  of  the  Volturno,  and  he  eventually  took  refuge,  with  his  best  troops,  in 
the  fortress  of  Gaeta.  On  the  maintenance  of  this  fortress  hung  the  fate 
of  the  kingdom  of  Naples.  Its  defence  is  the  only  bright 
point  in  the  career  of  the  feeble  Francis,  whose  courage  was 
aroused  by  the  heroic  resolution  ot  his  young  wife,  the  Bava- 
rian Princess  Mary.  For  three  months  the  defence  continued.  But  no 
European  power  came  to  the  aid  of  the  king,  disease  appeared  with  scarcity 
of  food  and  of  munitions  of  war,  and  the  garrison  was  at  length  forced  to 
capitulate.  The  fall  of  Gaeta  was  practically  the  completion  of  the  great 
work  of  the  unification  of  Italy.  Only  Rome  and  Venice  remained  to  be 
added  to  the  united  kingdom.  On  February  18,  1861,  Victor  Emmanuel 
assembled  at  Turin  the  deputies  of  all  the  states  that  acknowl-  victor  Emman- 
edged  his  supremacy,  and  in  their  presence  assumed  the  title  uel  Made 
of  King  of  Italy,  which  he  was  the  first  to  bear.  In  four  K™s  of  Italy 
months  afterwards  Count  Cavour,  to  whom  this  great  work  was  largely 
due,  died.  He  had  lived  long  enough  to  see  the  purpose  of  his  life 
practically  accomplished. 

Great  as  had  been  the  change  which  two  years  had  made,  the  patriots 
of  Italy  were  not  satisfied.    "  Free  from  the  Alps  to  the  Adriatic  !"  was  their 


203  GARIBALDI  AND  THE  UNIFICATION  OF 

cry ;  "  Rome  and  Venice  !"  became  the  watchword  of  the  revolutionists. 
Mazzini,  who  had  sought  to  found  a  republic,  was  far  from  content,  and  the 
agitation  went  on.  Garibaldi  was  drawn  into  it,  and  made  bitter  complaint 
of  the  treatment  his  followers  had  received.  In  1862,  disheartened  at  the 
inaction  of  the  king,  he  determined  to  undertake  against  Rome  an  expedi- 
tion like  that  which  he  had  led  against  Naples  two  years  before. 

In  June  he  sailed  from  Genoa  and  landed  at  Palermo,  where  he  was 

Garibaldi's  Ex-    quickly  joined  by  an  enthusiastic  party  of  volunteers.     They 

pedition  supposed  that  the  government  secretly  favored  their  design, 

Against  Rome  but   the   king   had   no   idea  of    fightlng  against    the   French 

troops  in  Rome  and  arousing  international  complications,  and  he  energetic- 
ally warned  all  Italians  against  taking  part  in  revolutionary  enterprises. 

But  Garibaldi  persisted  in  his  design.  When  his  way  was  barred  by 
the  garrison  of  Messina  he  turned  aside  to  Catania,  where  he  embarked 
with  2,000  volunteers,  declaring  he  would  enter  Rome  as  a  victor,  or  perish 
beneath  its  walls.  He  landed  at  Melito  on  the  24th  of  August,  and  threw 
himself  at  once,  with  his  followers,  into  the  Calabrian  mountains.  But  his 
enterprise  was  quickly  and  disastrously  ended.  General  Cialdini  despatched 
a  division  of  the  regular  army,  under  Colonel  Pallavicino,  against  the  volun- 
teer bands.  At  Aspromonte,  on  the  28th  of  August,  the  two  forces  came 
into  collision.  A  chance  shot  was  followed  by  several  volleys  from  the 
regulars.  Garibaldi  forbade  his  men  to  return  the  fire  of  their  fellow- 
subjects  of  the  Italian  kingdom.  He  was  wounded,  and  taken 
prisoner  with  his  followers,  a  few  of  whom  had  been  slain 
in  the  short  combat.  A  government  steamer  carried  the 
wounded  chief  to  Varignano,  where  he  was  held  in  a  sort  of  honorable  im- 
prisonment, and  was  compelled  to  undergo  a  tedious  and  painful  operation 
for  the  healing  of  his  wound.  He  had  at  least  the  consolation  that  all 
Europe  looked  with  sympathy  and  interest  upon  the  unfortunate  hero  ;  and 
a  general  sense  of  relief  was  felt  when,  restored  to  health,  he  was  set  free, 
and  allowed  to  return  to  his  rocky  island  of  Caprera. 

Victor  Emmanuel  was  seeking  to  accomplish  his  end  by  safer  means. 

The  French  garrison  of  Rome  was  the  obstacle  in  his  way,  and  this  was 

finally  removed  through  a  treaty  with  Louis  Napoleon  in  September,  1864, 

Florence  the        tne  emperor  agreeing  to  withdraw  his  troops  during  the  succeed- 

Capital  of         ing  two  years,  in  which  the  pope  was  to  raise  an  army  large 

enough  to  defend  his  dominions.    Florence  was  to  replace  Turin 

as  the  capital  of  Italy.     This  arrangement  created  such  disturbances  in  Turin 

that  the  king  was  forced  to  leave  that   city  hastily  for  his  new  capital.      In 

December,  1866,  the  last  of  the  French   troops  departed  from   Rome,   in 


GARIBALDI  AND  THE  UNIFICATION  OF  ITALY  203 

despite  of  the  efforts  of  the  pope  to  retain  them.  By  their  withdrawal 
Italy  was  freed  from  the  presence  of  foreign  soldiers  for  the  first  time 
probably  in  a  thousand  years. 

In  1866  came  an  event  which  reacted  favorably  for  Italy,  though  her 
part  in  it  was  the  reverse  of  triumphant.  This  was  the  war  between  Prussia 
and  Austria.  Italy  was  in  alliance  with  Prussia,  and  Victor 
Emmanuel  hastened  to  lead  an  army  across  the  Mincio  to 
the  invasion  of  Venetia,  the  last  Austrian  province  in  Italy. 
Garibaldi  at  the  same  time  was  to  invade  the  Tyrol  with  his  volunteers. 
The  enterprise  ended  in  disaster.  The  Austrian  troops,  under  the  Arch- 
duke Albert,  encountered  the  Italians  at  Custozza  and  gained  a  brilliant 
victory,  despite  the  much  greater  numbers  of  the  Italians. 

Fortunately  for  Italy,  the  Austrians  had  been  unsuccessful  in  the  north, 
and  the  emperor,  with  the  hope  of  gaining  the  alliance  of  France  and 
breaking  the  compact  between  Italy  and  Prussia,  decided  to  cede  Venetia  to 
Louis  Napoleon.  His  purpose  failed.  All  Napoleon  did  in  response  was 
to  act  as  a  peacemaker,  while  the  Italian  king  refused  to  recede  from  his 
alliance.  Though  the  Austrians  were  retreating  from  a  country  which  no 
longer  belonged  to  them,  the  invasion  of  Venetia  by  the  Italians  continued, 
and  several  conflicts  with  the  Austrian  army  took  place. 

But  much  the  most  memorable  event  of  this  brief  war  occurred  on  the 
sea,  in  the  most  striking  contest   of  ironclad   ships   between   the  American 
civil  war  and  the  Japan-China  contest.      Both  countries  concerned  had  fleets 
on  the  Adriatic.     Italy  was  the  strongest  in  naval  vessels,  possessing  ten  iron- 
clads and  a  considerable  number  of  wooden  ships.     Austria's 
ironclad  fleet  was   seven  in  number,  plated  with  thin  iron  and      t^e  Adriatic 
with  no  very  heavy  guns.      In  addition  there  was  a  number 
of  wooden   vessels   and  gunboats.     But  in  command  of  this  fleet  was  an 
admiral  in  whose  blood  was  the  iron  which  was  lacking  on  his  ships,  Teget- 
hoff,    the   Dewey  of    the    Adriatic.      Inferior  as  his  ships  were,   his    men 
were  thoroughly  drilled  in  the  use  of  the  guns  and  the  evolutions  of  the 
ships,  and  when  he  sailed  it  was  with  the  one  thought  of  victory. 

Persano,  the  Italian  admiral,  as  if  despising  his  adversary,  engaged  in 
siege  of  the  fortified  island  of  Lissa,  near  the  Dalmatian  coast,  leaving  the 
Austrians -to  do  what  they  pleased.  What  they  pleased  was  to  attack  him 
with  a  fury  such  as  has  been  rarely  seen.  Early  on  July  20,  1866,  when  the 
Italians  were  preparing  for  a  combined  assault  of  the  island  by  land  and  sea, 
their  movement  was  checked  by  the  signal  displayed  on  a  scouting  frigate  : 
"Suspicious-looking  ships  are  in  sight."  Soon  afterwards  the  Austrian  fleet 
appeared,  the  ironclads  leading,  the  wooden  ships  in  the  rear. 


204  GARIBALDI  AND  THE  UNIFICATION  OF  ITALY 

The  battle  that  followed  has  had  no  parallel  before  or  since.  The 
whole  Austrian  fleet  was  converted  into  rams.  Tegethoff  gave  one  final 
order  to  his  captains:  "Close  with  the  enemy  and  ram  everything  grey." 
Grey  was  the  color  of  the  Italian  ships.  The  Austrian  were  painted  black, 
so  as  to  prevent  any  danger  of  error. 

Fire  was  opened  at  two  miles  distance,  the  balls  being  wasted  in  the 
waters  between  the  fleets,  "  Full  steam  ahead,"  signalled  Tegethoff.  On 
came  the  fleets,  firing  steadily,  the  balls  now  beginning  to  tell.  "  Ironclads 
will  ram  and  sink  the  enemy,"  signalled  Tegethoff.  It  was  the  last  order  he 
gave  until  the  battle  was  won. 

Soon  the  two   lines  of    ironclads  closed  amid  thick  clouds  of  smoke. 
Tegethoff,  in  his  flagship,  the  Ferdinand  Max,  twiced  rammed  a  grey  iron- 
clad without  effect.      Then,  out  of  the  smoke,  loomed  up  the  tall   masts  of 
The  Sinking         the   ^e  &  Italia,   Persano's  flagship    in  the   beginning  of  the 
of  the  "Re       fray.      Against  this  vessel  the  Ferdinand  Max  rushed  at  full 
speed,  and   struck  her  fairly   amidships.       Her  sides  of    iron 
were  crushed   in  by  the  powerful   blow,   her  tall   masts  toppled  over,  and 
down  beneath   the  waves   sank  the  great   ship  with  her  crew  of  600  men. 
The  next  minute  another  Italian  ship  came  rushing  upon  the  Austrian,  and 
was  only  avoided  by  a  quick  turn  of  the  helm. 

One  other  great  disaster  occurred  to  the  Italians.      The  Palestro  was 
set  on  fire,  and  the  pumps  were  put  actively  to  work  to  drowrn  the  magazine. 
The  crew  thought  the  work  had  been  successfully  performed, 
is  Blown  Up      and that  they  were  getting  the  fire  under  control,  when  there  sud- 
denly came  a  terrible   burst  of  flame  attended   by  a  roar  that 
drowned  all  the  din  of  the  battle.      It  was  the   death  knell  of  400  men,  for 
the  Palestro  had  blown  up  with  all  on  board. 

The  great  ironclad  turret  ship  and  ram  of  the  Italian  fleet,  the.  Affonda- 
tore,  to  which  Admiral  Persano  had  shifted  his  flag,  far  the  most  powerful 
vessel  in  the  Adriatic,  kept  outside  of  the  battle-line,  and  was  of  little  ser- 
vice in  the  fray.  It  was  apparently  afraid  to  encounter  Tegethoff's  terrible 
rams.  The  battle  ended  with  the  Austrian  fleet,  wooden  vessels  arid  all,  pass- 
ing practically  unharmed  through  the  Italian  lines  into  the  harbor  of  Lissa, 
leaving  death  and  destruction  in  their  rear.  Tegethoff  was  the  one  Aus- 
trian who  came  out  of  that  war  with  fame.  Persano  on  his  return  home 
was  put  on  trial  for  cowardice  and  incompetence.  He  was  con- 

Venetia  Ceded          .       r.       .     .        .  .     ,.        .         ,     .  .  ... 

to  Italy  victed  ot  the  latter  and  dismissed  from  the  navy  in  disgrace. 

But    Italy,  though    defeated   by  land    and   sea,   gained   a 

valuable    prize  from    the  war,  for  Napoleon    ceded    Venetia  to   the    Italian 

king,  and  soon  afterwards  Victor  Emmanuel  entered  Venice  in  triumph, 


GARIBALDI  AND  THE  UNIFICATION  OF  ITALY  205 

the   solemn   act  of  homage  being  performed  in   the    superb   Place    of  St. 
Marks.     Thus  was  completed  the  second  act  in  the  unification  of  Italy. 

The  national  party,  with  Garibaldi  at  its  head,  still  aimed  at  the  posses- 
sion of  Rome,  as  the  historic  capital  of  the  peninsula.  In  1867  he  made  a 
second  attempt  to  capture  Rome,  but  the  papal  army,  strengthened  with  a 
a  new  French  auxiliary  force,  defeated  his  badly  armed  volunteers,  and  he 
was  taken  prisoner  and  held  captive  for  a  time,  after  which  he  was  sent  back 
to  Caprera.  This  led  to  the  French  army  of  occupation  being  returned  to 
Civita  Vecchia,  where  it  was  kept  for  several  years. 

The   final    act    came    as  a  consequence  of  the    Franco-German  war  of 
1870,  which  rendered   necessary  the  withdrawal  of  the  French  troops  from 
Italy.     The   pope  was  requested   to   make  a  peaceful   abdica-    Rome  Becomes 
tion.     As  he  refused  this,  the  States  of  the  Church  were  occu-      the  Capital 
pied  up  to  the  walls  of  the  capital,  and  a  three  hours'  cannon-      of  Italy 
ade  of  the  city  sufficed  to  bring  the  long  strife  to  an   end.      Rome   became 
the  capital  of  Italy,  and  the  whole  peninsula,  for  the  first  time  since  the  fall 
of  the  ancient  Roman  empire,  was  concentrated  into  a  single  nation,  under 
one  king. 


CHAPTER  XIV. 

Bismarck  and  the  New  Empire  of  Germany. 

WHAT  was  for  many  centuries  known  as  "  The  Holy  Roman  Empire 
of  the  German  Nation  "  was  a  portion  of  the  great  imperial  do- 
main of  Charlemagne,  divided  between  his  sons  on  his  death  in 
814.  It  became  an  elective  monarchy  in  911,  and  from  the  reign  of  Otho 
the  Great  was  confined  to  Germany,  which  assumed  the  title  above  given. 
This  great  empire  survived  until  1804,  when  the  imperial  title,  then  held  by 
Francis  I.  of  Austria,  was  given  up,  and  Francis  styled  him-  The  Empires  of 
self.  Emperor  of  Austria.  It  is  an  interesting  coincidence  that  Germany  and 
this  empire  ceased  to  exist  in  the  same  year  that  Napoleon, 
who  in  a  large  measure  restored  the  empire  of  Charlemagne,  assumed  the 
imperial  crown  of  France.  The  restoration  of  the  Empire  of  Germany, 
though  not  in  its  old  form,  was  left  to  Prussia,  after  the  final  overthrow  of 
the  Napoleonic  imperial  dynasty  in  1871. 

Prussia,  originally  an  unimportant  member  of  the  German   confedera- 
tion, rose  to  power  as  Austria  declined,  its  progress   upward  being  remark- 
ably  rapid.     Frederick  William,    the    "Great    Elector"    of    Brandenburg, 
united  the  then  minor  province  of  Prussia  to  his  dominions,  and  at  his  death 
tn  1688  left  it  a  strong  army  and  a  large   treasure.      His   son,    The  Rapid 
Frederick  I.,  was  the  first  to  bear  the  title  of  King  of  Prussia.       Growth  of 
Frederick  the  Great,  who  became  king  in  1740,  had  under  him 
a  series  of  disjointed  provinces  and  a  population  of  less  than  2,500,000.    His 
genius  made  Prussia  a  great  power,  which  grew  until,  in  1805,  it  had  a  popu- 
lation of  9,640,000  and  a  territory  of  nearly  6,000  square  miles. 

We  have  seen  the  part  this  kingdom  played  in  the  Napoleonic  wars. 
Dismembered  by  Napoleon  and  reduced  to  a  mere  fragment,  it  regained  its 
old  importance  by  the  Treaty  of  Vienna.  The  great  career  of  this  kingdom 
began  with  the  accession,  in  1862,  of  King  William  I.,  and  the  appointment, 
in  the  same  year,  of  Count  Otto  von  Bismarck  as  Minister  of  the  King's 
House  and  of  Foreign  Affairs.  It  was  not  King  William,  but  Count  Bis- 
marck, who  raised  Prussia  to  the  exalted  position  it  has  since  assumed. 

Bismarck  began  his  career  by  an  effort  to  restore  the  old  despotism, 
setting  aside  acts  of  the  legislature  with  the  boldness  of  an  autocrat,  and 

(207) 


208  BISMARCK  AND  THE  NEW  EMPIRE  OF  GERMANY 

seeking  to  make  the  king  supreme  over  the  representatives  of  the   people. 
Bismarck's          ^e  disdained  tne  protest  of  the  Chamber  of  Deputies  in  con- 
Despotic  Acts  eluding  a  secret  treaty  with  Russia.      He  made  laws   and  de- 
and  Warlike     creed  budget  estimates  without  the  concurrence  of  the  Cham- 
bers.    And  while   thus  busily  engaged  at  home  in  altercations 
with    the    Prussian    Parliament,   he  was  as   actively  occupied  with   foreign 
affairs. 

In  1864  Austria  reluctantly  took  part  with  Prussia  in  the  occupation  of 
the  duchy  of  Schleswig-Holstein,  claimed  by  Denmark.  A  war  with  Den- 
mark followed,  which  ultimately  resulted  in  the  annexation  to  Prussia  of 
the  disputed  territory.  In  this  movement  Bismarck  was  carrying  out  a  pro- 
ject which  he  had  long  entertained,  that  of  making  Prussia  the  leading  power 
in  Germany.  A  second  step  in  this  policy  was  taken  in  1866,  when  the  troops 
of  Prussia  occupied  Hanover  and  Saxony.  This  act  of  aggression  led  to  a 
war,  in  which  Austria,  alarmed  at  the  ambitious  movements  of  Prussia,  came 
to  the  aid  of  the  threatened  states. 

Bismarck  was  quite  ready.  He  had  strengthened  Prussia  by  an  alliance 
with  Italy,  and  launched  the  Prussian  army  against  that  of  Austria  with  a 
rapidity  that  overthrew  the  power  of  the  allies  in  a  remarkably  brief  and 
most  brilliant  campaign.  At  the  decisive  battle  of  Sadowa  fought  July  3, 
1866,  King  William  commanded  the  Prussian  army  and  Field-marshal  Bene- 
dek  the  Austrian.  But  back  of  the  Prussian  king  was  General  Von  Moltkx 
one  of  the  most  brilliant  strategists  of  modern  times,  to  whose  skillful  con> 
binations,  and  distinguished  services  in  organizing  the  army  of  Prussia,  that 
state  owed  its  rapid  series  of  successes  in  war. 

At  Sadowa  the  newly-invented  needle-gun  played   an  effective  part  in 
bringing  victory  to  the  Prussian  arms.     The  battle  continued  actively  from 
7.30  A.M.  to  2.30  P.M.,  at  which  hour  the  Prussians  carried  the  centre  of  the 
Austria  Over-      Austrian  position.     Yet,  despite  this,  the  advantage  remained 
thrown  at        with  the  Austrians  until  3.30,  at  which  hour  the  Crown  Prince 
5adowa  Frederick  drove  their  left  flank  from  the  village  of  Lipa.    An 

hour  more  sufficed  to  complete  the  defeat  of  the  Austrians,  but  it  was  9  P.M. 
before  the  fighting  ceased.  In  addition  to  their  losses  on  the  field,  15,000 
of  the  Austrians  were  made  prisoners  and  their  cause  was  lost  beyond  possi- 
bility of  recovery. 

There  seemed  nothing  to  hinder  Bismarck  from  overthrowing  and  dis- 
membering the  Austrian  empire,  as  Napoleon  had  done  more  than  once,  but 
there  is  reason  to  believe  that  the  dread  of  France  coming  to  the  aid  of  the 
defeated  realm  made  him  stop  short  in  his  career  of  victory.  Napoleon  III. 
boasted  to  the  French  Chambers  that  he  had  stayed  the  conqueror  at  the 


BISMARCK  AND  THE  NEW  EMPIRE  OF  GERMANY  211 

gates  of  Vienna.  However  that  be,  a  treaty  of  peace  was  signed,  in  which 
Austria  consented  to  withdraw  from  the  German  Confederation.  Bismarck 
had  gained  one  great  point  in  his  plans,  in  removing  a  formidable  rival  from 
his  path.  The  way  was  cleared  for  making  Prussia  the  supreme  power  in 
Germany.  The  German  allies  of  Austria  suffered  severely  for  their  assistance 
to  that  power.  Saxony  kept  its  king,  but  fell  under  Prussian  control ;  and 
Hanover,  Hesse-Cassel,  Nassau,  and  the  free  city  of  Frankfurt-on-the-Main 
were  absorbed  by  Prussia. 

The  States  of  South  Germany  had  taken  part  on   the  side  of  Austria 
in  the  war,  and  continued  the  struggle  after  peace  had  been   made   between 
the  main   contestants.     The   result  was  the   only  one  that  could  have  been 
expected   under  the   circumstances.     Though  the   Bavarians  and  Wurtem- 
bergers   showed    great   bravery  in  the    several    conflicts,   the    South  Qerman 
Prussians  were    steadily  successful,  and    the    South    German      states  in  the 
rmy  was  finally  obliged    to    retire   beyond  the  Main,    while      War 
vViirzburg  was  captured  by  the  Prussians.      In  this  city  a  truce  was  effected 
which  ultimately  led  to  a  treaty  of  peace.  Wurtemberg,  Bavaria,  and  Baden 
were    each    required   to  pay  a  war  indemnity,  and  a  secret  measure  of  the 
treaty  was  an  offensive   and  defensive  alliance  with  Prussia  for  common  ac- 
tion in  case  of  a  foreign  war. 

Mention  was  made  in  the  last  chapter  of  the  long  disunion  of  Italy,  its 
division  into  a  number  of  separate  and  frequently  hostile  states  from  the 
fall  of  the  Roman  Empire  until  its  final  unification  in  1870.  A  similar  con- 
dition had  for  ages  existed  in  Germany.  The  so-called  Ger- 

T-         .  ,,  ,.          ,  •     i  1-     1  i  Disunion  of 

man  Empire  of  the   mediaeval  period  was   little   more   than  a      Germany 
league  of  separate   states,  each  with  its  own  monarch  and  dis- 
tinct government.     And  the  authority  of  the  emperor  decreased  with   time 
until   it  became  but  a  shadow.      It  vanished  in  1804,  leaving  Germany  com- 
posed of  several  hundred  independent  states,  small  and  large. 

Several  efforts  were  made  in  the  succeeding  years  to  restore  the  bond 
of  union  between  these  states.  Under  the  influence  of  Napoleon  they  were 
organized  into  South  German  and  North  German  Confederacies,  and  the 
effect  of  his  interference  with  their  internal  affairs  was  such  that  they  be- 
came greatly  reduced  in  number,  many  of  the  minor  states  being  swallowed 
up  by  their-more  powerful  neighbors. 

The  subsequent  attempts  at  union  proved  weak  and   ineffective.     The 
Bund,  or  bond  of  connection  between  these  states,  formed  after 
the   Napoleonic   period,  was  of  the  most   shadowy  character,       unk>n 
its    congress    being,   destitute    of   power    or   authority.     The 
National  Assembly,  convened    at  Frankfurt  after  the    revolution   of   1848, 


212  BISMARCK  AND  THE  NEW  EMPIRE  OF  GERMANY 

with  the  Archduke  John  of  Austria  as  administrator  of  the  empire, 
proved  equally  powerless.  It  made  a  vigorous  effort  to  enforce  its  author- 
ity, but  without  avail ;  Prussia  refused  to  be  bound  by  its  decisions  ;  and  the 
attitude  of  opposition  assumed  by  this  powerful  state  soon  brought  the  new 
attempt  at  union  to  an  end. 

In  1886  the  war  between  the  two  great  powers  of  Germany,  in  which 
most  of  the  smaller  powers  were  concerned,  led  to  more  decided  measures, 
in  the  absorption  by  Prussia  of  the  states  above  named,  the  formation  of  a 
North  German  League  among  the  remaining  states  of  the  north,  and  the 
offensive  and  defensive  alliance  with  Prussia  of  the  South  German  states. 
By  the  treaty  of  peace  with  Austria,  that  power  was  excluded  from  the  Ger- 
man League,  and  Prussia  remained  the  dominant  power  in  Germany.  A 
constitution  for  the  League  was  adopted  in  1867,  providing  fora  Diet,  or 
legislative  council  of  the  League,  elected  by  the  direct  votes  of  tne  people, 
and  an  army,  which  was  to  be  under  the  command  of  the  Prussian  king  and 
subject  to  the  military  laws  of  Prussia.  Each  state  in  the  League  bound 
itself  to  supply  a  specified  sum  for  the  support  of  the  army. 

Here  was  a  union  with  a  backbone — an  army  and  a  budget — and 
Bismarck  had  done  more  in  the  five  years  of  his  ministry  ii:  forming  an 

united  Germany  than  his  predecessors  had  done  in  fifty  years. 
The  Feeling  for  ^  ,  .  ,  ,  .  «  «•  i  1-11 

Unity  But  the  idea  or  union  and  alliance  between  kindred  states  was 

then  widely  in  the  air.  Such  a  union  had  been  practically 
completed  in  Italy,  and  Hungary  in  1867  regained  her  ancient  rights,  which 
had  been  taken  from  her  in  1849,  being  given  a  separate  government,  with 
Francis  Joseph,  the  emperor  of  Austria,  as  its  king.  It  was  natural  that 
the  common  blood  of  the  Germans  should  lead  them  to  a  political  confed- 
eration, and  equally  natural  that  Prussia,  which  so  overshadowed  the  smaller 
states  in  strength,  should  be  the  leading  element  in  the  alliance. 

The  great  increase  in  the  power  and  importance  of  Prussia,  as  an  out- 
come of  the  war  with  Austria,  was  viewed  with  jealousy  in  Fiance.  The 
Emperor  Napoleon  sought,  by  a  secret  treaty  with  Holland,  to  obtain 
possession  of  the  state  of  Luxemburg,  for  which  a  sum  of  money  was  to  be 
paid.  This  negotiation  became  known  and  was  defeated  by  Bismarck,  the 
King  of  Holland  shrinking  from  the  peril  of  war  and  the  publicity  of  a 
disgraceful  transaction.  But  the  interference  of  Prussia  with  this  underhand 
scheme  added  to  the  irritation  of  France. 

The  Position  And  thus  time   passed  on   until  the  eventful  year   1870. 

of  Louis  By   that   year   Prussia    had    completed    its    work    among  the 

Napoleon          North  German  states  and  was  ready  for  the  issue  of  hostilities, 

if  this  should  be  necessary.      On  the  other  hand,  Napoleon,  who  had  found 


BISMARCK  AND  THE  NEW  EMPIRE  OF  GERMANY  213 

his  prestige  in  France  from  various  causes  decreasing,  felt  obliged  in  1870 
to  depart  from  his  policy  of  personal  rule  and  give  that  country  a  constitu- 
tional government.  This  proposal  was  submitted  to  a  vote  of  the  people  and 
was  sustained  by  an  immense  majority.  He  also  took  occasion  to  state  that 
"peace  was  never  more  assured  than  at  the  present  time."  This  assurance 
gave  satisfaction  to  the  world,  yet  it  was  a  false  one,  for  war  was  probably 
at  that  moment  assured. 

There  were  alarming  signs  in  France.  The  opposition  to  Napoleonism 
was  steadily  gaining  power.  A  bad  harvest  was  threatened — a  serious 
source  of  discontent.  The  Parliament  was  discussing  the  reversal  of  the 
sentence  of  banishment  against  the  Orleans  family.  These  indications  of  a 
change  in  public  sentiment  appeared  to  call  for  some  act  that  would  aid  in 
restoring  the  popularity  of  the  emperor.  And  of  all  the  acts  that  could  be 
devised  a  national  war  seemed  the  most  promising.  If  the  Rhine  frontier, 
which  every  French  regarded  as  the  natural  boundary  of  the  empire,  could 
be  regained  by  the  arms  of  the  nation,  discontent  and  opposition  would 
vanish,  the  name  of  Napoleon  would  win  back  its  old  prestige,  and  the 
reign  of  Bonapartism  would  be  firmly  established. 

Acts  speak  louder  than  words,  and  the  acts  of  Napoleon  were  not  in 
accord  with  his  assurances  of  peace.  Extensive  military  preparations 
began,  and  the  forces  of  the  empire  were  strengthened  by 

i      -j          i  1-1  11-  Preparations 

land  and  sea,  while  great  trust  was  placed   in  a  new  weapon,       for  Hostilities 

of  murderous  powers,  called  the  mitrailleuse,  the  predecessor 

of  the  machine  gun,  and  capable  of  discharging  twenty-five  balls  at  once. 

On  the  other  hand,  there  were  abundant  indications  of  discontent  in 
Germany,  where  a  variety  of  parties  inveighed  against  the  rapacious  policy  of 
Prussia,  and  where  Bismarck  had  sown  a  deep  crop  of  hate.  It  was  believed 
in  France  that  the  minor  states  would  not  support  Prussia  in  a  war.  In 
Austria  the  defeat  in  1866  rankled,  and  hostilities  against  Prussia  on  the 
part  of  France  seemed  certain  to  win  sympathy  and  support  in  that  com- 
posite empire.  Colonel  Stoffel,  the  French  military  envoy  at  Berlin; 
declared  that  Prussia  would  be  found  abundantly  prepared  for  a  struggle  ; 
but  his  warnings  went  unheeded  in  the  French  Cabinet,  and  the  warlike 
preparations  continued. 

Napoleon  did  not  have  to  go  far  for  an  excuse  for  the  war  upon  which 
he  was  resolved.  One  was  prepared  for  him  in  that  potent 

r  i  i         L  •  1.L  r    c-       •  T        The  Revolution 

source  of   trouble,  the  succession  to  the  throne  ol  Spam.      In      jn  Spain 
that  country  there  had    for   years   been   no   end  of    trouble, 
revolts,  Carlist  risings,  wars  and  rumors  of  wars.     The  government  of  Queen 
Isabella,  with    its    endless    intrigues,    plots,    and    alternation    of    despotism 


2i4  BISMARCK  AND  THE  NEW  EMPIRE  OF  GERMANY 

and  anarchy,  and  the  pronounced  immorality  of  the  queen,  had  become  so 
distasteful  to  the  people  that  finally,  after  several  years  of  revolts  and  armed 
risings,  she  was  driven  from  her  throne  by  a  revolution,  and  for  a  time  Spain 
was  without  a  monarchy  and  ruled  on  republican  principles. 

But  this  arrangement  did  not  prove  satisfactory.  The  party  in  opposition 
looked  around  for  a  king,  and  negotiations  began  with  a  distant  relative  of 
the  Prussian  royal  family,  Leopold  of  Hohenzollern.  Prince  Leopold  ac- 
cepted the  offer,  and  informed  the  king  of  Prussia  of  his  decision. 

The  news  of  this  event  caused  great  excitement  in  Paris,  and  the  Prus- 
sian government  was  advised  of  the  painful  feeling  to  which  the  incident 
had  given  rise.  The  answer  from  Berlin  that  the  Prussian 

The  Spanish  .       ,  .  i      i         T->   • 

Succession  government  had  no  concern  in  the  matter,  and  that  Prince 
Leopold  was  free  to  act  on  his  own  account;  did  not  allay  the 
excitement.  The  demand  for  war  grew  violent  and  clamorous,  the  voices 
of  the  feeble  opposition  in  the  Chambers  were  drowned,  and  the  journalists 
and  war  partisans  were  confident  of  a  short  and  glorious  campaign  and  a 
triumphant  march  to  Berlin. 

The  hostile  feeling  was  reduced  when  King  William  of  Prussia,  though 
he  declined  to  prohibit  Prince  Leopold  from  accepting  the  crown,  expressed 
his  concurrence  with  the  decision  of  the  prince  when  he  withdrew  his  accept- 
ance of  the  dangerous  offer.     This   decision  was  regarded  as 

Napoleon's  De-  .    .  •  .  . 

mandand         sufficient,  even   in  Paris;  but  it  did   not  seem  to  be  so  in  the 

William's         palace,  where  an  excuse  for  a  declaration  of  war  was  ardently 

desired.     The  emperor's  hostile  purpose  was  enhanced  by  the 

influence  of  the  empress,  and  it  was  finally  declared  that  the  Prussian  king 

had   aggrieved  France  in   permitting  the   prince  to  become  a  candidate  for 

the  throne  without  consulting  the  French  Cabinet. 

Satisfaction  for  this  shadowy  source  of  offence  was  demanded,  but  King 
William  firmly  refused  to  say  any  more  on  the  subject  and  declined  to  stand 
in  the  way  of  Prince  Leopold  if  he  should  again  accept  the  offer  of  the 
Spanish  throne.  This  refusal  was  declared  to  be  an  offence  to  the  honor 
and  a  threat  to  the  safety  of  France.  The  war  party  was  so  strongly  in  the 
ascendant  that  all  opposition  was  now  looked  upon  as  lack  of 

The  Declaration  ..  -  .  .        r  T    i       i       T->   •          -**•    •  ^-MI-    • 

of  War  patriotism,  and  on  the  I5th  of  July  the  Prime  Minister  Ollivier 

announced  that  the  reserves  were  to  be  called  out  and  the  neces- 
sary measures  taken  to  secure  the  honor  and  security  of  France.  When  the 
declaration  of  war  was  hurled  against  Prussia  the  whole  nation  seemed  in 
harmony  with  it,  and  public  opinion  appeared  for  once  to  have  become  a 
unit  throughout  France. 


BISMARCK  AND  THE  NEW  EMPIRE  OF  GERMANY  215 

Rarely  in  the  history  of  the  world  has  so  trivial  a  cause  given  rise  to 
such  stupendous  military  and  political  events  as  took  place  in  France  in  a 
brief  interval  following  this  blind  leap  into  hostilities.  Instead  of  a  tri- 
umphant march  to  Berlin  and  the  dictation  of  peace  from  its  palace,  France 
was  to  find  itself  in  two  months'  time  without  an  emperor  or  an  army,  and 
in  a  few  months  more  completely  subdued  and  occupied  by  foreign  troops, 
while  Paris  had  been  made  the  scene  of  a  terrible  siege  and  a  frightful  com- 
munistic riot,  and  a  republic  had  succeeded  the  empire.  It  was  such  a  series 
of  events  as  have  seldom  been  compressed  within  the  short  interval  of  half 
a  year. 

In  truth  Napoleon  and  his  advisers  were  blinded   by  their  hopes  to  the 
true  state  of  affairs.     The    army  on  which   they  depended,  and  which  they 
assumed  to  be   in  a  high    state  of  efficiency  and    discipline,  was  lacking  in 
almost  every  requisite  of  an   efficient  force.     The  first  Napo-    state  of  the 
Icon  was  his  own  minister  of  war.    The  third  Napoleon,  when       French  and 
told  by  his  war  minister  that  "  not  a  single  button  was  want-      German 
ing    on  a  single    gaiter,"   took   the  words  for   the  fact,   and 
hurled  an  army  without  supplies  and  organization  against  the  most  thor- 
oughly organized  army  the  world  had  ever  known.     That  the  French  were 
as  brave  as  the  Germans  goes  without  saying  ;  they  fought  desperately,  but 
from  the  first  confusion  reigned  in  their  movements,  while   military  science 
of  the  highest  kind  dominated  those  of  the  Germans. 

Napoleon  was  equally  mistaken  as  to  the  state  of  affairs  in  Germany. 
The  disunion  upon  which  he  counted  vanished  at  the  first  threat  of  war. 
All  Germany  felt  itself  threatened  and  joined  hands  in  defence.  The 
declaration  of  war  was  received  there  with  as  deep  an  enthusiasm  as  in 
France  and  a  fervent  eagerness  for  the  struggle.  The  new  popular  song, 
Die  Wacht  am  Rhein  ("The  Watch  on  the  Rhine")  spread  rapidly  from 
end  to  end  of  the  country,  and  indicated  the  resolution  of  the  German 
people  to  defend  to  the  death  the  frontier  stream  of  their  country. 

The  French  looked  for  a  parade  march  to  Berlin,  even  fixing  the  day 
of  their  entrance  into  that  city — August  I5th,  the  emperor's  birthday.  On 
the  contrary,  they  failed  to  set  their  foot  on  German  territory,  and  soon 
found  themselves  engaged  in  a  death  struggle  with  the  invaders  of  their 
own  land.  In  truth,  while  the  Prussian  diplomacy  was  conducted  by  Bis- 
marck, the  ablest  statesman  Prussia  had  ever  known,  the  movements  of  the 
army  were  directed  by  far  the  best  tactician  Europe  then 
possessed,  the  famous  Von  Moltke,  to  whose  strategy  the 
rapid  success  of  the  war  against  Austria  had  been  due.  In 
the  war  with  France  Von  Moltke,  though  too  old  to  lead  the  armies  in  per- 


216  BISMARCK  AND  THE  NEW  EMPIRE  OF  GERMANY 

son,  was  virtually  commander-in-chief,  and  arranged  those  masterly  combina- 
tions which  overthrew  all  the  power  of  France  in  so  remarkably  brief  a 
period.  Under  his  directions,  from  the  moment  war  was  declared,  every- 
thing worked  with  clocklike  precision.  It  was  said  that  Von  Moltke  had 
only  to  touch  a  bell  and  all  went  forward.  As  it  was,  the  Crown  Prince 
Frederick  fell  upon  the  French  while  still  unprepared,  won  the  first  battle, 
and  steadily  held  the  advantage  to  the  end,  the  French  being  beaten  by  the 
strategy  that  kept  the  Germans  in  superior  strength  at  all  decisive  points. 

But  to  return  to  the  events  of  war.  On  July  23,  1870,  the  Emperor 
Napoleon,  after  making  his  wife  Eugenie  regent  of  France,  set  out  with  his 
son  at  the  head  of  the  army,  full  of  high  hopes  of  victory  and  triumph.  By 
the  end  of  July  King  William  had  also  set  out  from  Berlin  to  join  the 
armies  that  were  then  in  rapid  motion  towards  the  frontier. 

The  emperor  made  his  way  to  Metz,  where  was  stationed  his  main 
army,  about  200,000  strong,  under  Marshals  Bazaine  and  Canrobert  and 
General  Bourbaki.  Further  east,  under  Marshal  MacMahon, 
t^e  nero  °f  Magenta,  was  the  southern  army,  of  about  100,000 
men.  A  third  army  occupied  the  camp  at  Chalons,  while  a 
well-manned  fleet  set  sail  for  the  Baltic,  to  blockade  the  harbors  and  assail 
the  coast  of  Germany.  The  German  army  was  likewise  in  three  divisons, 
the  first,  of  61,000  men,  under  General  Steinmetz  ;  the  second,  of  206,000 
men,  under  Prince  Frederick  Charles  ;  and  the  third,  of  180,000  men,  under 
the  crown  prince  and  General  Blumenthal.  The  king,  commander-in-chief 
of  the  whole,  was  in  the  centre,  and  with  him  the  general  staff  under  the 
guidance  of  the  alert  Von  Moltke.  Bismarck  and  the  minister  of  war  Von 
Roon  were  also  present,  and  so  rapid  was  the  movement  of  these  great 
forces  that  in  two  weeks  after  the  order  to  march  was  given  300,000  armed 
Germans  stood  in  rank  along  the  Rhine. 

The  two  armies  first  came  together  on  August  2d,  near  Saarbruck,  on 

Battles  of  Saar-   the   frontier  line  of    the  hostile   kingdoms.      It  was  the    one 

briickand         success  of  the  French,  for  the  Prussians,  after  a  fight  in  which 

Weissenburg    both    sides    lost    equally>   retired    in   good    order.      This    was 

proclaimed  by  the  French  papers  as  a  brilliant  victory,  and  filled  the  people 
with  undue  hopes  of  glory.  It  was  the  last  favorable  report,  for  they  were 
quickly  overwhelmed  with  tidings  of  defeat  and  disaster. 

Weissenburg,  on  the  borders  of  Rhenish  Bavaria,  had  been  invested 
by  a  division  of  MacMahon's  army.  On  August  4th  the  right  wing  of  the 
army  of  the  Crown  Prince  Frederick  attacked  and  repulsed  this  investing 
force  after  a  hot  engagement,  in  which  its  leader,  General  Douay,  was 
killed,  and  the  loss  on  both  sides  was  heavy.  Two  days  later  occurred  a 


BISMARCK  AND  THE  NEW  EMPIRE  OF  GERMANY  217 

battle  which  decided  the  fate  of  the  whole  war,  that  of  Worth-Reideshofen, 
where  the  army  of  the  crown  prince  met  that  of  MacMahon,  and  after  a 
desperate  struggle,  which  continued  for  fifteen  hours,  completely  defeated 
him,  with  very  heavy  losses  on  both  sides.  MacMahon  retreated  in  haste 
towards  the  army  at  Chalons,  while  the  crown  prince  took  possession  of 
Alsace,  and  prepared  for  the  reduction  of  the  fortresses  on  the  Rhine,  from 
Strasburg  to  Belfort.  On  the  same  day  as  that  of  the  battle  of  Worth, 
General  Steinmetz  stormed  the  heights  of  Spicheren,  and,  though  at  great 
loss  of  life,  drove  Frossard  from  those  heights  and  back  upon  Metz. 

The    occupation    of    Alsace  was    followed  by  that  of  Lorraine,  by  the 
Prussian  army  under  King  William,  who  took  possession  of  Nancy  and  the 
country  surrounding  on  August   nth.      These  two  provinces  had  formerly 
belonged  to  Germany,  and  it  was  the  aim  of  the  Prussians  to    occupation  of 
retain  them  as  the  chief  anticipated  prize  of  the  war.      Mean-       Alsace  and 
while  the  world   looked  on  in  amazement  at  the  extraordinary       Lorraine 
rapidity  of  the  German   success,  which,  in   two  weeks  after   Napoleon  left 
Paris,  had  brought  his  power  to  the  verge  of  overthrow. 

Towards  the  Moselle  River  and  the  strongly  fortified  town  of  Metz. 
1 80  miles  northeast  of  Paris,  around  which  was  concentrated  the  main  French 
force,  all  the  divisions  of  the  German  army  now  advanced,  and  on  the  I4th 
of  August  they  gained  a  victory  at  Colombey-Neuvilly  which  drove  their 
opponents  back  from  the  open  field  towards  the  fortified  city. 

It  was  Moltke's  opinion  that  the  French  proposed  to  make  their  stand 
before  this  impregnable  fortress,  and  fight  there  desperately  for  victory. 
But,  finding"  less  resistance  than  he  expected,  he  concluded, 

.  i        t          T»        ••••«  r   i      •  i  •   i  •        T°e  Situation 

on  the  1 5th,  that  nazame,  in  tear   ot   being  cooped  up  within       at  Metz 

the  fortress,  meant  to  march  towards  Verdun,  there  to  join  his 

forces  with  those  of  MacMahon  and  give  battle  to  the  Germans  in  the  plain. 

The  astute  tactician  at  once  determined  to  make  every  effort  to  prevent 
this  concentration  of  his  opponents,  and  by  the  evening  of  the  I5th  a 
cavalry  division  had  crossed  the  Moselle  and  reached  the  village  of  Mars-la- 
Tour,  where  it  bivouacked  for  the  night.  It  had  seen  troops  in  motion 
towards  Metz,  but  did  not  know  whether  these  formed  the  rear-guard  or  the 
vanguard  of  the  French  army  in  its  march  towards  Verdun. 

In  fact,- Bazaine  had  not  yet  got  away  with  his  army.  All  the  roads 
from  Metz  were  blocked  with  heavy  baggage,  and  it  was  impossible  to  move 
so  large  an  army  with  expedition.  The  time  thus  lost  by  Bazaine  was 
diligently  improved  by  Frederick  Charles,  and  on  the  morning  of  the  i6th 
the  Brandenburg  army  corps,  one  of  the  best  and  bravest  in  the  German 
army,  had  followed  the  cavalry  and  come  within  sight  of  the  Verdun  road. 


2i8  BISMARCK:  AND  THE  NEW  EMPIRE  OF  GERMANY 

It  was  quickly  perceived  that  a  French  force  was  before  them,  and  some 
preliminary  skirmishing  developed  the  enemy  in  such  strength  as  to  convince 
the  leader  of  the  corps  that  he  had  in  his  front  the  whole  or  the  greater  part 
of  Bazaine's  army,  and  that  its  escape  from  Metz  had  not  been  achieved. 

They  were  desperate  odds  with  which  the  brave  Brandenburgers  had 
to  contend,  but  they  had  been  sent  to  hold  the  French  until  reinforcements 

could  arrive,  and  they  were  determined  to  resist  to  the  death. 
the  Battle  of  ^  1-1  i  «  V  •  i  i 

Mars=la=Tour    ^or  nearly  six  hours  they  resisted,  with  unsurpassed  courage, 

the  fierce  onslaughts  of  the  French,  though  at  a  cost  in  life 
that  perilously  depleted  the  gallant  corps.  Then,  about  four  o'clock  in  the 
afternoon,  Prince  Frederick  Charles  came  up  with  reinforcements  to  their 
support  and  the  desperate  contest  became  more  even. 

Gradually  fortune  decided  in  favor  of  the  Germans,  and  by  the  time 
night  had  come  they  were  practically  victorious,  the  field  of  Mars-la-Tour, 
after  the  day's  struggle,  remaining  in  their  hands.  But  they  were  utterly 
exhausted,  their  horses  were  worn  out,  and  most  of  their  ammunition  was 

spent,  and  though  their  impetuous  commander  forced  them  to 
Defeat  of  the  1-11  i  r  IT  r  ,  • 

French  a  new  attack,  it  led   to  a  useless  loss  ot  lite,  lor  their  powers 

of  fighting  were  gone.  They  had  achieved  their  purpose, 
that  of  preventing  the  escape  of  Bazaine,  though  at  a  fearful  loss,  amount- 
ing to  about  16,000  men  on  each  side.  "  The  battle  of  Vionville  [Mars-la- 
Tour]  is  without  a  parallel  in  military  history,"  said  Emperor  William,  "  see- 
ing that  a  single  army  corps,  about  20,000  men  strong,  hung  on  to  and  re- 
pulsed an  enemy  more  than  five  times  as  numerous  and  well  equipped. 
Such  was  the  glorious  deed  done  by  the  Brandenburgers,  and  the  Hohen- 
zollerns  will  never  forget  the  debt  they  owe  to  their  devotion." 

Two  days  afterwards  (August  i6th),  at  Gravelotte,  a  village  somewhat 

nearer  to  Metz,  the  armies,  somewhat  recovered  from    the   terrible  struggle 

of  the  Hth,  met  again,  the  whole  German   army  being  now  brought   up,  so 

tvi  t  r         ^lat:   over   2OO>o°o  men  faced   the  140,000  of  the  French.      It 

of  the  Qer-       was    the    great    battle   of  the  war.      For  four   hours  the    two 

armies  stood  fighting  face  to  face,  without  any  special  result, 

neither  being  able  to  drive  back  the  other.     The  French  held 

their  ground  and  died.     The  Prussians  dashed  upon  them  and  died.      Only 

late  in  the  evening  was  the  right  wing  of  the  French  army  broken,  and  the 

victory,  which  at  five  o'clock  remained  uncertain,  was  decided  in  favor  of  the 

Germans.     More  than  40,000  men  lay  dead  and  wounded  upon  the  field,  the 

terrible  harvest  of  those  nine   hours  of  conflict.      That   niofht  Bazaine  with- 

t> 

drew  his  army  behind  the  fortifications  at  Metz.  His  effort  to  join  Mac- 
Mahon  had  ended  in  failure. 


I 

I  2 
I    ° 


i 

ij 


BISMARCK  AND  THE  NEW  EMPIRE  OF  GERMANY  221 

It  was  the  fixed  purpose  of  the  Prussians  to  detain  him  in  that  strong- 
hold, and  thus  render  practically  useless  to  France  its  largest  army.  A  siege 

was  to  be  prosecuted,  and  an  army  of  150,000  men  was  extended 

„,.,.-.  f  The  Siege 

around   the  town.      1  he  fortifications  were    far  too  strong  to       of  Metz 

be    taken    by  assault,  and  all    depended  on  a  close    blockade. 
On  August  3  ist  Bazaine  made  an  effort  to  break  through  the  German  lines, 
but  was  repulsed.      It  became  now  a  question  of  how  long  the  provisions  of 
the  French  would  hold  out. 

The  French  emperor,  who  had  been  with  Bazaine,  had  left  his  army 
before  the  battle  of  Mars-la-Tour,  and  was  now  with  MacMahon  at  Chalons. 
Here  lay  an  army  of  125,000  infantry  and  12,000  cavalry.  On  it  the  Ger- 
mans were  advancing,  in  doubt  as  to  what  movement  it  would  make,  whether 
back  towards  Paris  or  towards  Metz  for  the  relief  of  Bazaine.  They  sought 
to  place  themselves  in  a  position  to  check  either.  '  The  latter  movement  was 

determined  on  by  the  French,  but  was  carried  out  in  a  dubious    . 

*  .  MacMahon 

and   uncertain  manner,  the  time  lost  giving  abundant  opportu-      Marches  to 

nity  to  the  Germans  to  learn  what  was  afoot  and  to  prepare  to       Relieve 
A  1  r  n/r      A*    i         I     •  Bazaine 

prevent  it.  As  soon  as  they  were  aware  of  MacMahon  s. inten- 
tion of  proceeding  to  Metz  they  made  speedy  preparations  to  prevent  his  re- 
lieving Bazaine.  By  the  last  days  of  August  the  army  of  the  crown  prince 
had  reached  the  right  bank  of  the  Aisne,  and  the  fourth  division  gained 
possession  of  the  line  of  the  Maas.  On  August  3Oth  the  French  under 
General  de  Failly  were  attacked  by  the  Germans  at  Beaumont  and  put  to 
flight  with  heavy  loss.  It  was  evident  that  the  hope  of  reaching  Metz  was 
at  an  end,  and  MacMahon,  abandoning  the  attempt,  concentrated  his 
army  around  the  frontier  fortress  of  Sedan. 

This  old  town  stands  on  the  right  bank  of  the  Meuse,  in  an  angle  of 
territory  between  Luxemburg  and  Belgium,  and  is  surrounded  by  meadows, 
gardens,  ravines,  ditches  and  cultivated  fields  ;  the  castle  rising  on  a  cliff- 
like  eminence  to  the  southwest  of  the  place.  MacMahon 

,     ,  .         ,  .  ,-.    .          The  French 

had  stopped   here  to  give  his  weary  men  a  rest,  not  to  fight,       surrounded 
but  Von    Moltke    decided,    on    observing    the    situation,    that 
Sedan   should   be   the  grave-yard  of  the  French  army.      "  The  trap   is  now 
closed,  and*  the  mouse  in  it,"  he  said,  with  a  chuckle  of  satisfaction. 

Such  proved  to  be  the  case.  On  September  ist  the  Bavarians  won  the 
village  of  Bazeille,  after  hours  of  bloody  and  desperate  struggle.  During 
this  severe  fight  Marshal  MacMahon  was  so  seriously  wounded  that  he  was 
obliged  to  surrender  the  chief  command,  first  to  Ducrot,  and  then  to  Gen- 
eral Wimpffen,  a  man  of  recognized  bravery  and  cold  calculation. 


222  BISMARCK  AND  THE  NEW  EMPIRE  OF  GERMANY 

Fortune  soon  showed  itself  in  favor  of  the  Germans.  To  the  north- 
west of  the  town,  the  North  German  troops  invested  the  exits  from  St. 
Meuges  and  Fleigneux,  and  directed  a  fearful  fire  of  artillery  against  the 
French  forces,  which,  before  noon,  were  so  hemmed  in  the  valley  that  only 
two  insufficient  outlets  to  the  south  and  north  remained  open.  But  Gen- 
eral Wimpffen  hesitated  to  seize  either  of  these  routes,  the 
°Pen  way  to  Illy  was  soon  closed  by  the  Prussian  guard 
corps,  and  a  murderous  fire  was  now  directed  from  all  sides 
upon  the  French,  so  that,  after  a  last  energetic  struggle  at  Floing,  they 
gave  up  all  attempts  to  force  a  passage,  and  in  the  afternoon  beat  a 
retreat  towards  Sedan.  In  this  small  town  the  whole  army  of  MacMahon 
was  collected  by  evening,  and  there  prevailed  in  the  streets  and  houses  an 
unprecedented  disorder  and  confusion,  which  was  still  further  increased 
when  the  German  troops  from  the  surrounding  heights  began  to  shoot 
down  upon  the  fortress,  and  the  town  took  fire  in  several  places. 

That  an  end  might  be  put  to  the  prevailing  misery,  Napoleon  now 
commanded  General  Wimpffen  to  capitulate.  The  flag  of  truce  already 
waved  on  the  gates  of  Sedan  when  Colonel  Bronsart  appeared,  and  in  the 
name  of  the  king  of  Prussia  demanded  the  surrender  of  the  army  and 
fortress.  He  soon  returned  to  headquarters,  accompanied  by  the  French 
General  Reille,  who  presented  to  the  king  a  written  message  from  Napo- 
leon :  "  As  I  may  not  die  in  the  midst  of  my  army,  I  lay  my  sword  in  the 
hands  of  your  majesty."  .King  William  accepted  it  with  an  expression  of 
sympathy  for  the  hard  fate  of  the  emperor  and  of  the  French  army  which 
had  fought  so  bravely  under  his  own  eyes.  The  conclusion  of  the  treaty 
of  capitulation  was  placed  in  the  hands  of  Wimpffen,  who,  accompanied  by 
General  Castelnau,  set  out  for  Doncherry  to  negotiate  with  Moltke  and 
Bismarck.  No  attempts,  however,  availed  to  move  Moltke  from  his  stipu- 
lation for  the  surrender  of  the  whole  army  at  discretion  ;  he  granted  a 
short  respite,  but  if  this  expired  without  surrender,  the  bombardment  of 
the  town  was  to  begin  anew. 

At  six  o'clock  in  the  morning  the  capitulation  was  signed,  and  was 
ratified  by  the  king  at  his  headquarters  at  Vendresse  (26.  September).  Thus 
the  world  heheld  the  incredible  spectacle  of  an  army  of  83,000  men  sur- 
rendering themselves  and  their  weapons  to  the  victor,  and  being  carried  off 
as  prisoners  of  war  to  Germany.  Only  the  officers  who  gave  their  written 
word  of  honor  to  take  no  further  part  in  the  present  war  with  Germany 
were  permitted  to  retain  their  arms  and  personal  property.  Probably  the 
assurance  of  Napoleon,  that  he  had  sought  death  on  the  battlefield  but  had 
not  found  it,  was  literally  true;  at  any  rate,  the  fate  of  the  unhappy  man, 


BISMARCK  AND  THE  NEW  EMPIRE  OF  GERMANY  223 

bowed  down  as  he  was  both  by  physical  and  mental  suffering,  was  so  solemn 
and  tragic,  that  there  was  no  room  for  hypocrisy,  and  that  he  had  exposed 
himself  to  personal  danger  was  admitted  on  all  sides.  Ac-  surrender  of 
companied  by  Count  Bismarck,  he  stopped  at  a  small  and  Napoleon  and 
mean-looking  laborer's  inn  on  the  road  to  Doncherry,  where,  His  Army 
sitting  down  on  a  stone  seat  before  the  door,  with  Count  Bismarck,  he 
declared  that  he  had  not  desired  the  war,  but  had  been  driven  to  it  through 
the  force  of  public  opinion  ;  and  afterwards  the  two  proceeded  to  the  little 
castle  of  Bellevue,  near  Frenois,  to  join  King  William  and  the  crown 
prince.  A  telegram  to  Queen  Augusta  thus  describes  the  interview : 
"  What  an  impressive  moment  was  the  meeting  with  Napoleon  !  He  was 
cast  down,  but  dignified  in  his  bearing.  I  have  granted  him  Wilhelmshohe, 
near  Cassel,  as  his  residence.  Our  meeting  took  place  in  a  little  castle 
before  the  western  glacis  of  Sedan." 

The  locking  up  of  Bazaine  in  Metz  and  the  capture  of  MacMahon's 
army  at  Sedan  were  fatal  events  to  France.  The  struggle  continued  for 
months,  but  it  was  a  fight  against  hope.  The  subsequent  events  of  the  war 
consisted  of  a  double  siege,  that  of  Metz  and  that  of  Paris,  with  various 
minor  sieges,  and  a  desperate  but  hopeless  effort  of  France  in  the  field. 
As  for  the  empire  of  Napoleon  III.,  it  was  at  an  end.  The  tidings  of  the 
terrible  catastrophe  at  Sedan  filled  the  people  with  a  fury  that  soon  became 
revolutionary.  While  Jules  Favre,  the  republican  deputy,  was  offering  a 
motion  in  the  Assembly  that  the  emperor  had  forfeited  the  crown,  and  that 
a  provisional  government  should  be  established,  the  people  were  thronging 
the  streets  of  Paris  with  cries  of  "  Deposition  !  Republic  !"  Revoiuti0n 
On  the  4th  of  September  the  Assembly  had  its  final  meeting.  and  the  Third 
Two  of  its  prominent  members,  Jules  Favre  and  Gambetta,  Republic 
sustained  the  motion  for  deposition  of  the  emperor,  and  it  was  carried  after 
a  stormy  session.  They  then  made  their  way  to  the  senate-chamber,  where, 
before  a  thronging  audience,  they  proclaimed  a  republic  and  named  a 
government  for  the  national  defence.  At  its  head  was  General  Trochu, 
military  commandant  at  Paris.  Favre  was  made  minister  of  foreign  affairs  ; 
Gambetta,  minister  of  the  interior ;  and  other  prominent  members  of  the 
Assembly  filled  the  remaining  cabinet  posts.  The  legislature  was  dis- 
solved, the  *Palais  de  Bourbon  was  closed,  and  the  Empress  Eugenie  quitted 
the  Tuileries  and  made  her  escape  with  a  few  attendants  to  Belgium,  whence 
she  sought  a  refuge  in  England.  Prince  Louis  Napoleon  made  his  way  to 
Italy,  and  the  swarm  of  courtiers  scattered  in  all  directions;  some  faithful 
followers  of  the  deposed  monarch  seeking  the  castle  of  Wilhelmshohe, 
where  the  unhappy  Louis  Napoleon  occupied  as  a  prison  the  same  beautiful 


224  BISMARCK  AND  THE  NEW  EMPIRE  OF  GERMANY 

palace  and  park  in  which  his  uncle  Jerome  Bonaparte  had  once  passed  six 
years  in  a  life  of  pleasure.  The  second  French  Empire  was  at  an  end  ;  the 
third  French  Republic  had  begun — one  that  had  to  pass  through  many 
changes  and  escape  many  dangers  before  it  would  be  firmly  established. 

"  Not  a  foot's  breadth  of  our  country  nor  a  stone  of  our  fortresses 
shall  be  surrendered,"  was  Jules  Favre's  defiant  proclamation  to  the 
invaders,  and  the  remainder  of  the  soldiers  in  the  field  were 
collected  in  Paris,  and  strengthened  with  all  available  rein- 
forcements. Every  person  capable  of  bearing  arms  was  en- 
rolled in  the  national  army,  wh<ch  soon  numbered  400,000  men.  There  was 
need  of  haste,  for  the  victors  at  Sedan  were  already  marching  upon  the 
capital,  inspired  with  high  hopes  from  their  previous  astonishing  success. 
They  knew  that  Paris  was  strongly  fortified,  being  encircled  by  powerful 
lines  of  defence,  but  they  trusted  that  hunger  would  soon  bring  its  garrison 
to  terms.  The  same  result  was  looked  for  at  Metz,  and  at  Strasburg,  which 
was  also  besieged. 

Thus  began  at  three  main  points  and  several  minor  ones  a  military  siege 
the  difficulties,  dangers,  and  hardships  of  which  surpassed  even  those  of  the 
winter  campaign  in  the  Crimea.  Exposed  at  the  fore-posts  to  the  enemy's 
balls,  chained  to  arduous  labor  in  the  trenches  and  redoubts,  and  suffering  from 
the  effects  of  bad  weather,  and  insufficient  food  and  clothing,  the  German 
soldiers  were  compelled  to  undergo  great  privations  and  sufferings  before 
the  fortifications ;  while  many  fell  in  the  frequent  skirmishes  and  sallies, 
many  succumbed  to  typhus  and  epidemic  disease,  and  many  returned  home 
mutilated,  or  broken  in  health. 

No  less   painful    and    distressing  was   the   condition  of  the   besieged. 

While  the  garrison  soldiers   on   guard  were  constantly  compelled  to  face 

death  in  nocturnal  sallies,  or  led  a  pitiable  existence  in  damp  huts,  having 

inevitable  surrender  constantly  before  their  eves,  and  disarma- 

Hardships  of  ...  /  .       .      „      ,     . 

the  Conflict  rnent  and  imprisonment  as  the  reward  of  all  their  struggles 
and  exertions,  the  citizens  in  the  towns,  the  women  and  chil- 
dren, were  in  constant  danger  of  being  shivered  to  atoms  by  the  fearful 
shells,  or  of  being  buried  under  falling  walls  and  roofs ;  and  the  poorer  part 
of  the  population  saw  with  dismay  the  gradual  diminution  of  the  necessa- 
ries of  life,  and  were  often  compelled  to  pacify  their  hunger  with  the  flesh 
of  horses,  and  disgusting  and  unwholesome  food. 

The  republican  government  possessed  only  a  usurped  power,  and 
none  but  a  freely  elected  national  assembly  could  decide  as  to  the  fate  of 
the  French  nation.  Such  an  assembly  was  therefore  summoned  for  the 
i6th  of  October.  Three  members  of  the  government — Cremieux,  Fou- 


BISMARCK  AND  THE  NEW  EMPIRE  OF  GERMANY  225 

richon,  and  Glais-Vizoin — were  despatched  before  the  entire  blockade  of 
the  town  had  been  effected,  to  Tours,  to  maintain  communication  with  the 
provinces.  An  attempt  was  also  made  at  the  same  time  to  induce  the  great 
powers  which  had  not  taken  part  in  the  war  to  organize  an  intervention,  as 
hitherto  only  America,  Switzerland,  and  Spain  had  sent  official 
recognition.  For  this  important  and  delicate  mission  the  old  Bismarck 
statesman  and  historian  Thiers  was  selected,  and,  in  spite  of  his 
three-and-seventy  years,  immediately  set  out  on  the  journey  to  London,  St. 
Petersburg,  Vienna,  and  Florence.  Count  Bismarck,  however,  in  the  name 
of  Prussia',  refused  any  intervention  in  internal  affairs.  In  two  despatches 
to  the  ambassadors  of  foreign  courts,  the  chancellor  declared  that  the  war, 
begun  by  the  Emperor  Napoleon,  had  been  approved  by  the  representatives 
of  the  nation,  and  that  thus  all  France  was  answerable  for  the  result.  Ger- 
many was  obliged,  therefore,  to  demand  guarantees  which  should  secure  her 
in  future  against  attack,  or,  at  any  rate,  render  attack  more  difficult.  Thus  a 
cession  of  territory  on  the  part  of  France  was  laid  down  as  the  basis  of  a  treaty 
of  peace.  The  neutral  powers  were  also  led  to  the  belief  that  if  they  fostered  in 
the  French  any  hope  of  intervention,  peace  would  only  be  delayed.  The  mis- 
sion of  Thiers,  therefore,  yielded  no  useful  result,  while  the  direct  negotiation 
which  Jules  Favre  conducted  with  Bismarck  proved  equally  unavailing. 

Soon  the  beleaguered  fortresses  began  to  fall.  On  the  2jd  of  Septem- 
ber the  ancient  town  of  Toul,  in  Lorraine,  was  forced  to  capitulate,  after  a 
fearful  bombardment;  and  on  the  2/th  Strasburg,  in  danger  of  the  terrible 
results  of  a  storming,  after  the  havoc  of  a  dreadful  artillery  fire,  hoisted 
the  white  flag,  and  surrendered  on  the  following  day.  The  supposed 
impregnable  fortress  of  Metz  held  out  little  longer.  Hunger  did  what 
cannon  were  incapable  of  doing.  The  successive  sallies  made  by  Bazaine 
proved  unavailing,  though,  on  October  yth,  his  soldiers  fought  with  des- 
perate energy,  and  for  hours  the  air  was  full  of  the  roar  of  cannon  and 
mitrailleuse  and  the  rattle  of  musketry.  But  the  Germans  withstood  the 
attack  unmoved,  and  the  French  were  forced  to  withdraw  into  the  town. 

Bazaine  then  sought  to  negotiate  with  the  German  leaders  at  Versailles, 
offering  to  take  no   part  in  the  war  for  three  months  if  permitted  to  with- 
draw.     But  Bismarck  and  Moltke  would   listen   to  no   terms    siege  and  Sur- 
other  -than    unconditional    surrender,  and    these    terms  were    renderof 
finally  accepted,  the  besieged  army  having  reached  the  brink   Metz 
of  starvation.     It  was  with  horror  and  despair  that  France  learned,  on  the 
3Oth  of  October,  that  the  citadel  of  Metz,  with  its  fortifications  and  arms  of 
defence,  had   been    yielded  to  the  Germans,  and    its    army  of   more    than 
150,000  men  had  surrendered  as  prisoners  of  war. 


226  BISMARCK  AND  THE  NEW  EMPIRE  OF  GERMANY 

This  hasty  surrender  at  Metz,  a  still  greater  disaster  to  France  than 

that  of  Sedan,  was  not  emulated  at  Paris,  which  for  four  months  held  out  against 

all  the  efforts  of  the  Germans.     On  the  investment  of  the  great  city,  King 

William    removed   his    headquarters   to  the    historic    palace  of   Versailles, 

setting  up  his  homely  camp-bed  in  the  same  apartments  from 

at  Versailles     which  Louis  XIV.  had    once  issued    his    despotic    edicts  and 

commands.      Here  Count  Bismarck  conducted  his  diplomatic 

labors  and  Moltke  issued  his  directions  for  the  siege,  which,  protracted  from 

week  to  week  and   month  to  month,  gradually  transformed  the   beautiful 

neighborhood,   with    its    prosperous    villages,   superb    country  houses,  and 

enchanting  parks  and  gardens,  into  a  scene  of  sadness  and  desolation. 

In  spite  of  the  vigorous  efforts  made  by  the  commander-in-chief 
Trochu,  both  by  continuous  firing  from  the  forts  and  by  repeated  sallies,  to 
prevent  Paris  from  being  surrounded,  and  to  force  a  way  through  the 
trenches,  his  enterprises  were  rendered  fruitless  by  the  watchfulness  and 
strength  of  the  Germans.  The  blockade  was  completely  accomplished ; 
Paris  was  surrounded  and  cut  off  from  the  outer  world ;  even  the  under- 
ground telegraphs,  through  which  communication  was  for  a  time  secretly 
maintained  with  the  provinces,  were  by  degrees  discovered  and  destroyed. 
But  to  the  great  astonishment  of  Europe,  which  looked  on  with  keenly 
pitched  excitement  at  the  mighty  struggle,  the  siege  continued  for  months 

without   any  special  progress  being:  observable  from  without 

The  Siege  of  .       J    :          ,  r     .s  r  '•«.!.•          n  r 

Paris  or  any  lessening  ol   resistance   irom  within.      On   account   of 

the  extension  of  the  forts,  the  Germans  were  compelied  to 
remain  at  such  a  distance  that  a  bombardment  of  the  town  at  first  appeared 
impossible ;  a  storming  of  the  outer  works  would,  moreover,  be  attended 
with  such  sacrifices,  that  the  humane  temper  of  the  king  revolted  from  such 
a  proceeding.  The  guns  of  greater  force  and  carrying  power  which  were 
needed  from  Germany,  could  only  be  procured  after  long  delay  on  account 
of  the  broken  lines  of  railway.  Probably  also  there  was  some  hesitation 
on  the  German  side  to  expose  the  beautiful  city,  regarded  by  so  many  as 
the  "  metropolis  of  civilization,"  to  the  risk  of  a  bombardment,  in  which 
works  of  art,  science,  and  a  historical  past  would  meet  destruction.  Never- 
theless, the  declamations  of  the  French  at  the  Vandalism  of  the  northern 
barbarians  met  with  assent  and  sympathy  from  most  of  the  foreign  powers. 
Determination  and  courage  falsified  the  calculations  at  Versailles  of  a 
quick  cessation  of  the  resistance.  The  republic  offered  a  far  more  energetic 
and  determined  opposition  to  the  Prussian  arms  than  the  empire  had  done. 
The  government  of  the  national  defence  still  declaimed  with  stern  reitera- 
tion :  "  Not  a  foot's  breadth  of  our  country  ;  not  a  stone  of  our  fortresses!" 


BISMARCK  AND  THE  NEW  EMPIRE  OF  GERMANY  227 

and  positively  rejected  all  proposals  of  treaty  based  on  territorial  conces- 
sions. Faith  in  the  invincibility  of  the  republic  was  rooted  as  an  indisputa- 
ble dogma  in  the  hearts  of  the  French  people.  The  victories  and  the  com- 
manding position  of  France  from  1792  to  1799  were  regarded  as  so  entirely 
the  necessary  result  of  the  Revolution,  that  a  conviction  prevailed  that  the 
formation  of  a  republic,  with  a  national  army  for  its  defence,  would  have  an 
especial  effect  on  the  rest  of  Europe.  Therefore,  instead  of  summoning  a 
constituent  Assembly,  which,  in  the  opinion  of  Prussia  and 
the  other  foreign  powers,  would  alone  be  capable  of  offering  Resistance0 
security  for  a  lasting  peace,  it  was  decided  to  continue  the 
revolutionary  movements,  and  to  follow  the  same  course  which,  in  the  years 
1792  and  1793,  had  saved  France  from  the  coalition  of  the  European  powers 
— a  revolutionary  dictatorship  such  as  had  once  been  exercised  by  the  Con- 
vention and  the  members  of  the  Committee  of  Public  Safety,  must  again 
be  revived,  and  a  youthful  and  hot-blooded  leader  was  alone  needed  to  stir 
up  popular  feeling  and  set  it  in  motion.  To  fill  such  a  part  no  one  was  bet- 
ter adapted  than  the  advocate  Gambetta,  who  emulated  the  career  of  the 
leaders  of  the  Revolution,  and  whose  soul  glowed  with  a  passionate  ardor 
of  patriotism.  In  order  to  create  for  himself  a  free  sphere  of  action,  and 
to  initiate  some  vigorous  measure  in  place  of  the  well-rounded  phrases  and 
eloquent  proclamations  of  his  colleagues  Trochu  and  Jules  Favre,  he  quitted 
the  capital  in  an  air-balloon  and  entered  into  communication  with  the  Gov- 
ernment delegation  at  Tours,  which  through  him  soon  obtained  a  fresh  im- 
petus. His  next  most  important  task  was  the  liberation  of  the  capital  from 
the  besieging  German  army,  and  the  expulsion  of  the  enemy  from  the 

"  sacred  "  soil  of  France.      For  this  purpose    he    summoned, 

..,  ,        .          (.  .    .  ,  ,,  iir    Qambetta  and 

with  the  authority  ot  a  minister  of  war,  all  persons  capable  01       His  \y0rk 

bearing  arms  up  to  forty  years  of  age  to  take  active  service, 
and  despatched  them  into  the  field  ;  he  imposed  war-taxes,  and  terrified  the 
tardy  and  refractory  with  threats  of  punishment.  Every  force  was  put  in 
motion  ;  all  France  was  transformed  into  a  great  camp.  A  popular  war  was. 
now  to  take  the  place  of  a  soldiers'  war,  and  what  the  soldiers  had  failed  to 
effect  must  be  accomplished  by  the  people  ;  France  must  be  saved,  and  the 
world  freed  from  despotism.  To  promote  this  object,  the  whole  of  France, 
with  th'e  exception  of  Paris,  was  divided  into  four  general  governments,  the 
headquarters  of  the  different  governors  being  Lille,  Le  Mans,  Bourges,  and 
Besan9on.  Two  armies,  from  the  Loire  and  from  the  Somine,  were  to 
march  simultaneously  towards  Paris,  and,  aided  by  the  sallies  of  Trochu  and 
his  troops,  were  to  drive  the  enemy  from  the  country.  Energetic  attacks 
were  now  attempted  from  time  to  time,  in  the  hope  that  when  the  armies  of 


228  BISMARCK  AND  THE  NEW  EMPIRE  OF  GERMANY 

relief  arrived  from  the  provinces,  it  might  be  possible  to  effect  a  coalition  ; 
but  all  these  efforts  were  constantly  repulsed  after  a  hot  struggle  by  the  be- 
sieging German  troops.  At  the  same  time,  during  the  month  of  October, 
the  territory  between  the  Oise  and  the  Lower  Seine  was  scoured  by  recon- 
noitering  troops,  under  Prince  Albrecht,  the  south-east  district  was  protected 
by  a  Wiirtemberg  detachment  through  the  successful  battle  near  Nogent  on 
the  Seine,  while  a  division  of  the  third  army  advanced  towards  the  south 
The  Southward  accompanied  by  two  cavalry  divisions.  A  more  unfortunate 

Advance  of       circumstance,  however,  for  the  Parisians  was  the  cutting  off  of 

the  Germans  ajj  communication  with  the  outer  world,  for  the  Germans  had 
destroyed  the  telegraphs.  But  even  this  obstacle  was  overcome  by  the  in- 
ventive genius  of  the  French.  By  means  of  pigeon  letter-carriers  and  air- 
balloons,  they  were  always  able  to  maintain  a  partial  though  one-sided  and 
imperfect  communication  with  the  provinces,  and  the  aerostatic  art  was  de- 
veloped and  brought  to  perfection  on  this  occasion  in  a  manner  which  had 
never  before  been  considered  possible. 

The  whole  of  France,  and  especially  the  capital,  was  already  in  a  state 
of  intense  excitement  when  the  news  of  the  capitulation  of  Metz  came  to 
Gambetta's  ac^  fresh  fuel  to  the  flame.  Outside  the  walls  Gambetta  was 

Army  of  using  heroic  efforts   to   increase   his  forces,  bringing  Bedouin 

horsemen  from  Africa  and  inducing  the  stern  old  revolutionist 
Garibaldi  to  come  to  his  aid  ;  and  Thiers  was  opening  fresh  negotiations  for 
a  truce.  Inside  the  walls  the  Red  Republic  raised  the  banners  of  insurrec- 
tion and  attempted  to  drive  the  government  of  national  defence  from  power. 
This  effort  of  the  dregs  of  revolution  to  inaugurate  a  reign  of  terror 
failed,  and  the  provisional  government  felt  so  elated  with  its  victory  that  it 
determined  to  continue  at  the  head  of  affairs  and  to  oppose  the  calling  of  a 
chamber  of  national  representatives.  The  members  proclaimed  oblivion  for 
what  had  passed,  broke  off  the  negotiations  for  a  truce  begun  by  Thiers, 
The  Negotia-  an(^  demanded  a  vote  of  confidence.  The  indomitable  spirit 

tions  Are  shown  by  the  French  people  did  not,  on  the  other  hand,  in- 
spire the  Germans  with  a  very  lenient  or  conciliatory  temper. 
Bismarck  declared  in  a  despatch  the  reasons  why  the  negotiations  had 
failed:  "The  incredible  demand  that  we  should  surrender  the  fruits  of  all 
our  efforts  during  the  last  two  months,  and  should  go  back  to  the  conditions 
which  existed  at  the  beginning  of  the  blockade  of  Paris,  only  affords  fresh 
proof  that  in  Paris  pretexts  are  sought  for  refusing  the  nation  the  right  of 
election."  Thiers  mournfully  declared  the  failure  of  his  undertaking,  but  in 
Paris  the  popular  voting  resulted  in  a  ten-fold  majority  in  favor  of  the  gov- 
ernment and  the  policy  of  postponement. 


KING  OSCAR  II.  OF  SWEDEN  AND  NORWAY. 


KING  CHRISTIAN  IX.  OF  DENMARK. 


EMPEROR  FRANCIS  JOSEPH  OF  AUSTRIA.  KING  HUMBERT  OF  ITALY. 

PRESENT    KINGS   OF    FOUR    COUNTRIES 


FERDINAND  DELESSEPS  PRESIDENT    LOUBET 

GREAT    MEN    OF    MODERN     FRANCE 


BISMARCK  AND  THE  NEW  EMPIRE  OF  GERMANY  231 

After  the  breaking  off  of  the  negotiations,  the  world  anticipated  some 
energetic  action  towards  the  besieged  city.  The  efforts  of  the  enemy  were, 
however,  principally  directed  to  drawing  the  iron  girdle  still  tighter,  en- 
closing the  giant  city  more  and  more  closely,  and  cutting  off  every  means 
of  communication,  so  that  at  last  a  surrender  might  be  brought  about  by 
the  stern  necessity  of  starvation.  That  this  object  would  not  be  accom- 
plished as  speedily  as  at  Metz,  that  the  city  of  pleasure,  enjoyment,  and 
luxury  would  withstand  a  siege  of  four  months,  had  never  been  contem- 
plated for  a  moment.  It  is  true  that,  as  time  went  on,  all  fresh  meat  disap- 
peared from  the  market,  with  the  exception  of  horse-flesh  ;  that  white  bread, 
on  which  Parisians  place  such  value,  was  replaced  by  a  baked  compound  of 
meal  and  bran  ;  that  the  stores  of  dried  and  salted  food  began  to  decline, 
until  at  last  rats,  dogs,  cats,  and  even  animals  from  the  zoological  gardens 
were  prepared  for  consumption  at  restaurants.  Yet,  to  the  Famine  and 
amazement  of  the  world,  all  these  miseries,  hardships,  and  Misery  in 
sufferings  were  courageously  borne,  nocturnal  watch  was  kept, 
sallies  were  undertaken,  and  cold,  hunger,  and  wretchedness  of  all  kinds 
were  endured  with  an  indomitable  steadfastness  and  heroism.  The  courage 
of  the  besieged  Parisians  was  also  animated  by  the  hope  that  the  military 
forces  in  the  provinces  would  hasten  to  the  aid  of  the  hard-pressed  capital, 
and  that  therefore  an  energetic  resistance  would  afford  the  rest  of  France 
sufficient  time  for  rallying  all  its  forces,  and  at  the  same  time  exhibit  an  ele- 
vating example.  In  the  carrying  out  of  this  plan,  neither  Trochu  nor  Gam 
betta  was  wanting  in  the  requisite  energy  and  circumspection.  The  former 
organized  sallies  from  time  to  time,  in  order  to  reconnoitre  and  discover 
whether  the  army  of  relief  was  on  its  way  from  the  provinces  ;  the  latter 
exerted  all  his  powers  to  bring  the  Loire  army  up  to  the  Seine.  But  both 
erred  in  undervaluing  the  German  war  forces  ;  they  did  not  believe  that  the 
hostile  army  would  be  able  to  keep  Paris  in  a  state  of  blockade,  and  at  the 
same  time  engage  the  armies  on  the  south  and  north,  east  and  west.  They 
had  no  conception  of  the  hidden,  inexhaustible  strength  of  the  Prussian 
army  organization — of  a  nation  in  arms  which  could  send  forth  constant  re- 
inforcements of  battalions  and  recruits,  and  fresh  bodies  of  disciplined  troops 
to  fill  the  gaps  left  in  the  ranks  by  the  wounded  and  fallen.  There  could  be 
no  doubt  as  to  the  termination  of  this  terrible  war,  or  the  final  victory  of 
German  energy  and  discipline. 

Throughout  the  last  months  of  the  eventful  year  1870,  the  northern 
part  of  France,  from  the  Jura  to  the  Channel,  from  the  Belgian  frontier  to 
the  Loire,  presented  the  aspect  of  a  wide  battlefield.  Of  the  troops  that 
had  been  set  free  by  the  capitulation  of  Metz,  a  part  remained  behind  in 


232  BISMARCK  AND  THE  NEW  EMPIRE  OF  GERMANY 

garrison,  another  division  marched  northwards  in  order  to  invest  the  pro- 
vinces of  Picardy  and  Normandy,  to  restore  communication  with  the  sea, 
and  to  bar  the  road  to  Paris,  and  a  third  division  joined  the  second  army, 
whose  commander-in-chief,  Prince  Frederick  Charles,  set  up  his  head- 
quarters at  Troyes.  Different  detachments  were  despatched  against  the 
northern  fortresses,  and  by  degrees  Soissons,  Verdun,  Thionville, 
Ham,  where  Napoleon  had  once  been  a  prisoner,  Pfalzburg  and 
Montmedy,  all  fell  into  the  hands  of  the  Prussians,  thus  open- 
ing to  them  a  free  road  for  the  supplies  of  provisions.  The  garrison  troops 
were  all  carried  off  as  prisoners  to  Germany  ;  the  towns — most  of  them  in  a 
miserable  condition — fell  into  the  enemy's  hands  ;  many  houses  were  mere 
heaps  of  ruins  and  ashes,  and  the  larger  part  of  the  inhabitants  were  suffer- 
ing severely  from  poverty,  hunger  and  disease. 

The  greatest  obstacles  were  encountered  in  the  northern  part  of  Alsace 

and  the  mountainous  districts  of  the  Vosges  and  the  Jura,  where  irregular 

warfare,   under   Garibaldi    and    other   leaders,   developed    to   a    dangerous 

Guerilla  War-      extent,  while  the  fortress  of  Lang-res  afforded  a  safe  retreat  to 

fare  in  the         the  guerilla  bands.      Lyons  and  the   neighboring  town   of  St 

Etienne   became   hotbeds   of  excitement,  the  red  flag  being 

raised  and  a  despotism  of  terror  and  violence  established.     Although  many 

divergent  elements  made  up  this  army  of  the  east,  all  were  united  in  hatred 

of  the  Germans  and  the  desire  to  drive  the  enemy  back  across  the  Rhine. 

Thus,  during  the  cold  days  of  November  and  December,  when  General 
Von  Treskow  began  the  siege  of  the  important  fortress  of  Belfort,  there 
burst  forth  a  war  around  Gray  and  Dijon  marked  by  the  greatest  hardships, 
perils  and  privations  to  the  invaders.  Here  the  Germans  had  to  contend 
with  an  enemy  much  superior  in  number,  and  to  defend  themselves  against 
continuous  firing  from  houses,  cellars,  woods  and  thickets,  while  the  im- 
poverished soil  yielded  a  miserable  subsistence,  and  the  broken  railroads 
cut  off  freedom  of  communication  and  of  reinforcement. 

The  whole  of  the  Jura  district,  intersected  by  hilly  roads  as  far  as  the 

plateau  of  Langres,  where,  in  the  days  of  Csesar,  the  Romans  and  Gauls 

were    wont    to    measure    their    strength    with    each    other,    formed    during 

November  and    December  the   scene    of   action   of    numerous    encounters 

which,  in  conjunction  with    sallies  from    the   garrison  at  Belfort,  inflicted 

severe  injury  on  Werder's  troops.     Dijon  had  repeatedly  to  be  evacuated  ; 

and  the  nocturnal   attack  at  Chattillon,   2Oth   November,  by 

District2  Garibaldians,  when  one   hundred   and   twenty  Landwehrmen 

and  Hussars  perished  miserably,  and  seventy  horses  were  lost, 

affording  a  striking  proof  of  the  dangers  to  which  the  German  army  was 


BISMARCK  AND  THE  NEW  EMPIRE  OF  GERMANY  233 

exposed  in  this  hostile  country  ;  although  the  revolutionary  excesses  of  the 
turbulent  population  of  the  south  diverted  to  a  certain  extent  the  attention 
of  the  National  Guard,  who  were  compelled  to  turn  their  weapons  against 
an  internal  enemy. 

By  means  of  the  revolutionary  dictatorship  of   Gambetta   the    whole 
French  nation  was  drawn  into  the  struggle,  the  annihilation  of  the  enemy 
being  represented  as  a  national  duty,  and  the  war  assuming  a  steadily  more 
violent  character.     The    indefatigable   patriot   continued   his   exertions   to 
increase  the  army  and  unite  the  whole  south  and  west  against    Qambettaand 
the  enemy,   hoping  to  bring  the  army  of  the  Loire  to  such      the  Army 
dimensions  that  it  would  be  able  to  expel  the  invaders  from      of  the  Loire 
the  soil  of  France.      But  these  raw  recruits  were  poorly  fitted  to  cope  with 
the  highly  disciplined  Germans,  and  their  early  successes  were  soon  followed 
by  defeat  and  discouragement,  while   the   hopes  entertained  by    the   Paris 
garrison  of  succor  from  the  south  vanished  as  news  of  the  steady  progress  of 
the  Germans  were  received. 

During  these  events  the  war  operations  before  Paris  continued  un- 
interruptedly. Moltke  had  succeeded,  in  spite  of  the  difficulties  of  trans- 
port, in  procuring  an  immense  quantity  of  ammunition,  and  the  long-delayed 
bombardment  of  Paris  was  ready  to  begin.  Having  stationed  with  all 
secrecy  twelve  batteries  with  seventy-six  guns  around  Mont  Avron,  on 
Christmas-clay  the  firing  was  directed  with  such  success  against  the  forti- 
fied eminences,  that  even  in  the  second  night  the  French,  after  great  losses, 
evacuated  the  important  position,  the  "  key  of  Paris,"  which  was  immedi- 
ately taken  possession  of  by  the  Saxons.  Terror  and  dismay  spread 
throughout  the  distracted  city  when  the  eastern  forts,  Rosny, 
Nogent  and  Noisy,  were  stormed  amid  a  tremendous  volley 
of  firing.  Vainly  did  Trochu  endeavor  to  rouse  the  failing 
courage  of  the  National  Guard  ;  vainly  did  he  assert  that  the  government 
of  the  national  defence  would  never  consent  to  the  humiliation  of  a  capitu- 
lation ;  his  own  authority  had  already  waned ;  the  newspapers  already 
accused  him  of  incapacity  and  treachery,  and  began  to  cast  every  aspersion 
on  the  men  who  had  presumptuously  seized  the  government,  and  yet  were 
not  in  a  position  to  effect  the  defence  of  the  capital  and  the  country.  After 
the  new  year  the  bombardment  of  the  southern  forts  began,  and  the  terror 
in  the  city  daily  increased,  though  the  violence  of  the  radical  journals  kept 
in  check  any  hint  of  surrender  or  negotiation.  Yet  in  spite  of  fog  and 
snow-storms  the  bombardment  was  systematically  continued,  and  with  every 
day  the  destructive  effect  of  the  terrible  missiles  grew  more  pronounced. 


234  BISMARCK  AND  THE  NEW  EMPIRE  OF  GERMANY 

Trochu  was  blamed  for  having  undertaken  only  small  sallies,  which 
could  have  no  result.  The  commander-in-chief  ventured  no  opposition  to 
the  party  of  action.  With  the  consent  of  the  mayors  of  the  twenty  arron- 
dissements  of  Paris  a  council  of  war  was  held.  The  threatening  famine,  the 
firing  of  the  enemy,  and  the  excitement  prevailing  among  the  adherents  of 
the  red  republic  rendered  a  decisive  step  necessary.  Consequently,  on  the 
1 9th  of  January,  a  great  sally  was  decided  on,  and  the  entire  armed  forces 
of  the  capital  were  summoned  to  arms.  Early  in  the  morning,  a  body  of 
100,000  men  marched  in  the  direction  of  Meudon,  Sevres  and  St.  Cloud  for 
the  decisive  conflict.  The  left  wing  was  commanded  by  General  Vinoy,  the 
right  by  Ducrot,  while  Trochu  from  the  watch-tower  directed  the  entire 
The  Last  Great  struggle.  With  great  courage  Vinoy  dashed  forward  with  his 
Sally  from  column  of  attack  towards  the  fifth  army  corps  of  General 

Kirchbach,  and  succeeded  in  capturing  the  Montretout  en- 
trenchment, through  the  superior  number  of  his  troops,  and  in  holding  it 
for  a  time.  But  when  Ducrot,  delayed  by  the  barricades  in  the  streets,  failed 
to  come  to  his  assistance  at  the  appointed  time,  the  attack  was  driven 
back  after  seven  hours'  fierce  fighting  by  the  besieging  troops.  Having 
lost  7,000  dead  and  wounded,  the  French  in  the  evening  beat  a  retreat, 
which  almost  resembled  a  flight.  On  the  following  day  Trochu  demanded 
a  truce,  that  the  fallen  National  Guards,  whose  bodies  strewed  the  battle- 
field, might  be  interred.  The  victors,  too,  had  to  render  the  last  rites  to 
many  a  brave  soldier.  Thirty-nine  officers  and  six  hundred  and  sixteen 
soldiers  were  given  in  the  list  of  the  slain. 

Entire  confidence  had  been  placed  by  the  Parisians  in  the  great  sally. 
When  the  defeat,  therefore,  became  known  in  its  full  significance,  when  the 
number  of  the  fallen  was  found  to  be  far  greater  even  than  had  been  stated 
in  the  first  accounts,  a  dull  despair  took  possession  of  the  famished  city, 
which  next  broke  forth  into  violent  abuse  against  Trochu,  "  the  traitor." 
Capitulation  now  seemed  imminent ;  but  as  the  commander-in-chief  had 
declared  that  he  would  never  countenance  such  a  disgrace,  he  resigned  his 
post  to  Vinoy.  Threatened  by  bombardment  from  without,  terrified  within 
by  the  pale  spectre  of  famine,  paralysed  and  distracted  by  the  violent  dis- 
sensions among  the  people,  and  without  prospect  of  effective  aid  from  the 

provinces,  what  remained  to  the  proud  capital  but  to  desist 
A  Paris6  at  from  a  conflict  the  continuation  of  which  only  increased  the 

unspeakable  misery,  without  the  smallest  hope  of  deliverance  ? 
Gradually,  therefore,  there  grew  up  a  resolution  to  enter  into  negotiations 
with  the  enemy;  and  it  was  the  minister  Jules  Favre,  who  had  been  fore- 
most with  the  cry  of  "  no  surrender"  four  months  before,  who  was  now  com- 


BISMARCK  AND  THE  NEW  EMPIRE  OF  GERMANY  235 

pellet!  to  take  the  first  step  to  deliver  his  country  from  complete  ruin.  It. 
was  probably  the  bitterest  hour  in  the  life  of  the  brave  man,  who  love</ 
France  and  liberty  with  such  a  sincere  affection,  when  he  was  conducted 
through  the  German  outposts  to  his  interview  with  Bismarck  at  Versailles. 
He  brought  the  proposal  for  a  convention,  on  the  strength  of  which  the 
garrison  was  to  be  permitted  to  retire  with  military  honors  to  a  part  of 
France  not  hitherto  invested,  on  promising  to  abstain  for  several  months 
from  taking  part  in  the  struggle.  But  such  conditions  were  positively 
refused  at  the  Prussian  headquarters,  and  a  surrender  was  demanded  as  at 
Sedan  and  Metz.  Completely  defeated,  the  minister  returned  to  Paris.  A 
a  second  meeting  on  the  following  day,  it  was  agreed  that  from  the  2/th 
at  twelve  o'clock  at  night,  the  firing  on  both  sides  should  be  discontinued. 
This  was  the  preliminary  to  the  conclusion  of  a  three  weeks'  truce,  to 
await  the  summons  of  a  National  Assembly,  with  which  peace  might  be 
negotiated. 

The  war  was  at  an  end  so  far  as  Paris  was  concerned.  But  it  continued 
in  the  south,  where  frequent  defeat  failed  to  depress  Gambetta's  indomitable 
energy,  and  where  new  troops  constantly  replaced  those  put  to  rout.  Gari- 
baldi, at  Dijon,  succeeded  in  doing  what  the  French  had  not  done  during 
the  war,  in  the  capture  of  a  Prussian  banner.  But  the  progress  of  the 
Germans  soon  rendered  his  position  untenable,  and,  finding  his  exertions 
unavailing,  he  resigned  his  command  and  retired  to  his  island  . 

&'  5  Bourbaki's 

of  Caprera.   Two  disasters  completed  the  overthrow  of  France.       Army  and 

Bourbaki's  army,  8s,ooo  strong:,  became  shut  in,  with  scanty      the  Siege  of 
,       ,         ,  J  .  .  j        11  r     i_  Belfort 

tood  and  ammunition,  among  the  snow-covered  valleys  ot  the 

Jura,  and  to  save  the  disgrace  of  capitulation  it  took  refuge  on  the  neutral 
soil  of  Switzerland  ;  and  the  strong  fortress  of  Belfort,  which  had  been 
defended  with  the  utmost  courage  against  its  besiegers,  finally  yielded,  with 
the  stipulation  that  the  brave  garrison  should  march  out  with  the  honors  of 
war.  Nothing  now  stood  in  the  way  of  an  extension  of  the  truce.  On  the 
suggestion  of  Jules  Favre,  the  National  Assembly  elected  a  commission  of 
fifteen  members,  which  was  to  aid  the  chief  of  the  executive,  and  his  min- 
isters, Picard  and  Favre,  in  the  negotiations  for  peace.  That  cessions  of 
territory  and  indemnity  of  war  expenses  would  have  to  be  conceded  had 
long  been  acknowledged  in  principle ;  but  protracted  and  excited  discussions 
took  place  as  to  the  extent  of  the  former  and  the  amount  of  The  Harsh 
the  latter,  while  the  demanded  entry  of  the  German  troops  Terms  of 
into  Paris  met  with  vehement  opposition.  But  Count  Bis-  Peace 
marck  resolutely  insisted  on  the  cession  of  Alsace  and  German  Lorraine, 
including  Metz  and  Diedenhofen  Only  with  difficulty  were  the  Germans 
13 


s>36  BISMARCK  AND  THE  NEW  EMPIRE  OF  GERMANY 

persuaded  to  separate  Belfort  from  the  rest  of  Lorraine,  and  leave  it  still 
in  the  possession  of  the  French.  In  respect  to  the  expenses  of  the  war, 
the  sum  of  five  milliards  of  francs  ($1,000,000,000)  was  agreed  upon,  of 
which  the  first  milliard  was  to  be  paid  in  the  year  1871,  and  the  rest  in  a 
stated  period.  The  stipulated  entry  into  Paris  also — so  bitter  to  the  French 
national  pride — was  only  partially  carried  out ;  the  western  side  only  of  the 
city  was  to  be  traversed  in  the  march  of  the  Prussian  troops,  and  again 
evacuated  in  two  days.  On  the  basis  of  these  conditions,  the  preliminaries 
of  the  Peace  of  Versailles  were  concluded  on  the  26th  of  February  between  the 
Imperial  Chancellor  and  Jules  Favre.  Intense  excitement  prevailed  when  the 
terms  of  the  treaty  became  known  ;  they  were  dark  days  in  the  annals  of  French 
history.  But  in  spite  of  the  opposition  of  the  extreme  Republican  party,  led 
by  Quinet  and  Victor  Hugo,  the  Assembly  recognized  by  an  overpowering 
majority  the  necessity  for  the  Peace,  and  the  preliminaries  were  accepted  by 
546  to  107  votes.  Thus  ended  the  mighty  war  between  France  and  Ger- 
many— a  war  which  has  had  few  equals  in  the  history  of  the  world. 

Had  King  William   received  no   indemnity  in  cash  or  territory  from 

France,   he  must  still    have  felt  himself  amply  repaid  for  the  cost  of  the 

brief  but  sanguinary  war,   for  it  brought   him  a  power  and   prestige  with 

which  the  astute  diplomatist  Bismarck  had  long  been  seeking  to  invest  his 

name.      Political  changes  move  slowly  in  times  of  peace,  rapidly  in  times  of 

war.     The  whole   of   Germany,   with   the   exception   of   Austria,    had   sent 

troops  to  the  conquest  of  France,  and  every  state,  north  and  south  alike, 

shared  in  the  pride  and  glory  of  the  result.     South  and  North 

Germany  Germany   had  marched  side  by  side  to  the  battlefield,  every 

difference   of  race  or  creed  forgotten,   and   the  honor  of  the 

German  fatherland  the  sole  watchword.     The  time  seemed  to  have  arrived 

to  close  the  breach  between  north  and  south,  and  obliterate  the  line  of  the 

Main,  which    had    divided  the   two   sections.      North  Germany  was   united 

under  the   leadership  of  Prussia,  and   the  honor  in  which  all  alike  shared 

now  brought  South  Germany  into  line  for  a  similar  union. 

The  first  appeal  in  this  direction  came  from  Baden.  Later  in  the  year 
plenipotentiaries  sought  Versailles  from  the  kingdoms  of  Bavaria  and  Wiir- 
temberg  and  the  grand  duchies  of  Baden  and  Hesse,  their  purpose  being  to 
arrange  for  and  define  the  conditions  of  union  between  the  South  and  the 
North  German  states.  For  weeks  this  momentous  question  filled  all  Ger- 
many with  excitement  and  public  opinion  was  in  a  state  of  high  tension. 
The  scheme  of  union  was  by  no  means  universally  approved,  there  being  a 
large  party  in  opposition,  but  the  majority  in  its  favor  in  Chambers  proved 
sufficient  to  enable  Bismarck  to  carry  out  his  plan. 


BISMARCK  AND  THE  NEW  EMPIRE  OF  GERMANY  237 

This  was  no  less  than  to  restore  the  German  Empire,  or  rather  to  estab- 
lish a  new  empire  of  Germany,  in  which    Austria,  long  at  the    Restoration  of 
head  of  the  former  empire,  should  have  no  part,  the  imperial      the  German 
dignity  being  conferred  upon  the  venerable  King  William  of 
Prussia,  a  monarch  whose  birth  dated  back  to  the  eighteenth  century,  and 
who  had  lived  throughout  the  Napoleonic  wars. 

Near  the  close  of  1870  Bismarrk  concluded  treaties  with  the  ambassa- 
dors of  the  Southern  States,  in  which  they  agreed  to  accept  the  constitution 
of  the  North  German  Union.  These  treaties  were  ratified,  after  some  op- 
position from  the  "  patriots  "  of  the  lower  house,  by  the  legislatures  of  the 
four  states  involved.  The  next  step  in  the  proceeding  was  a  suggestion 
from  the  king  of  Bavaria  to  the  other  princes  that  the  imperial  crown  of 
Germany  should  be  offered  to  King  William  of  Prussia. 

When  the  North  German  Diet  at  Berlin  had  given  its  consent  to  the 
new  constitution,  congratulatory  address  was  despatched  to  the  Pruss- 
ian monarch  at  Versailles.  Thirty  members  of  the  Diet,  with  the  president 
Simson  at  their  head,  announced  to  the  aged  hero-king  the  nation's  wish 
that  he  should  accept  the  new  dignity.  He  replied  to  the  deputation  in  sol- 
emn audience  that  he  accepted  the  imperial  dignity  which  the  German  nation 
and  its  princes  had  offered  him.  On  the  ist  of  January,  1871,  the  new  con- 
stitution was  to  come  into  operation.  The  solemn  assumption  of  the  im- 
perial office  did  not  take  place,  however,  until  the  i8th  of  January,  the  day  on 
which,  one  hundred  and  seventy  years  before,  the  new  em-  The  crowning 
peror's  ancestor,  Frederick  I.,  had  placed. the  Prussian  crown  of  William  I. 
on  his  head  at  Konigsberg,  and  thus  laid  the  basis  of  the  at  Versailles 
growing  greatness  of  his  house.  It  was  an  ever-memorable  coincidence,  that 
in  the  superb-mirrored  hall  of  the  Versailles  palace,  where,  since  the  days 
of  Richelieu,  so  many  plans  had  been  concerted  for  the  humiliation  of  Ger- 
many, King  William  should  now  proclaim  himself  German  Emperor.  After 
the  reading  of  the  imperial  proclamation  to  the  German  people  by  Count 
Bismarck,  the  Grand  Duke  led  a  cheer,  in  which  the  whole  .assembly  joined 
amid  the  singing  of  national  hymns.  Thus  the  important  event  had  taken 
place  which  again  summoned  the  German  Empire  to  life,  and  made  over  the 
imperial  crown  with  renewed  splendor  to  another  royal  house.  Barbarossa's 
old  legend,  that  the  dominion  of  the  empire  was,  after  long  tribulation,  to 
pass  from  the  Hohenstaufen  to  the  Hohenzollern,  was  now  fulfilled  ;  the 
dream  long  aspired  after  by  German  youth  had  now  become  a  reality  and  a 
living  fact. 

The  tidings  of  the  conclusion  of  peace  with  France,  whose  prelimi- 
naries were  completed  at  Frankfurt  on  the  loth  of  May,  1871,  filled  all  Ger- 


238  BISMARCK  AND  THE  NEW  EMPIRE  OF  GERMANY 

many  with  joy,  and  peace  festivals  on  the  most  splendid  scale  extended  from 
end  to  end  of  the  new  empire,  in  all  parts  of  which  an  earnest  spirit  of 
patriotism  was  shown,  while  Germans  from  all  regions  of  the  world  sent  home 
expressions  of  warm  sympathy  with  the  new  national  organization  of  their 
fatherland. 

The  decade  just  completed  had  been  one  of  remarkable  political 
changes  in  Europe,  unsurpassed  in  significance  during  any  other  period  of 
A  Decade  of  equal  length.  The  temporal  dominion  of  the  pope  had  van- 
Remarkable  ished  and  all  Italy  had  been  united  under  the  rule  of  a  single 
king.  The  empire  of  France  had  been  overthrown  and  a 
republic  established  in  its  place,  while  that  country  had  sunk  greatly  in 
prominence  among  the  European  states.  Austria  had  been  utterly  defeated 
in  war,  had  lost  its  last  hold  on  Italy  and  its  position  of  influence  among 
the  German  states.  And  all  the  remaining  German  lands  had  united  into  a 
great  and  powerful  empire,  of  such  extraordinary  military  strength  that  the 
surrounding  nations  looked  on  in  doubt,  full  of  vague  fears  of  trouble  from 
this  new  and  potent  power  introduced  into  their  midst. 

Bismarck,  however,  showed  an  earnest  desire  to  maintain  international 
peace  and  good  relations,  seeking  to  win  the  confidence  of  foreign  govern- 
ments, while  at  the  same  time  improving  and  increasing  that  military  force 
which  had  been  proved  to  be  so  mighty  an  engine  of  war. 

In  the  constitution  of  the  new  empire  two  legislative  bodies  were  pro- 
vided for,  the  Bundesrath  or  Federal  Council,  whose  members  are  annually 

appointed  by  the  respective  state  sfovernments,  and  the  Reichs- 
The  Legislature  /*  D  J  . L  ,  ,  ,  6 

of  the  Empire  *ag  or   Representative  body,  whose   members  are   elected  by 

universal  suffrage  for  a  period  of  three  years,  an  annual  ses- 
sion being  required.  Germany,  therefore,  in  its  present  organization,  is 
practically  a  federal  union  of  states,  each  with  its  own  powers  of  internal 
government,  and  with  a  common  legislature  approximating  to  our  Senate 
and  House  of  Representatives. 

The    remaining    incidents    of    Bismarck's    remarkable    career    may    be 

briefly  given.      It  consisted  largely  in  a  struggle  with  the  Catholic  Church 

organization,  which    had    attained  to   great    power   in   Germany,    and   was 

aggressive  to  an  extent  that  roused  the  vigorous  opposition  of  the  chan- 

Th   p  „      cellor  of  the  empire,  who  was  not  willing  to  acknowledge  any 

the  Catholic      power  in  Germany  other  than  that  of  the  emperor. 

Church  in  King  Frederick  William  IV.,  the  predecessor  of  the  reigning 

monarch,  had  made  active  efforts  to  strengthen  the  Catholic 
Church  in  Prussia,  its  clergy  gaining  greater  privileges  in  that  Protestant 
state  than  they  possessed  in  any  of  the  Catholic  states.  They  had  estab- 


BISMARCK  AND  THE  NE  W  EMPIRE  OF  GERMANY  239 

lished  everywhere  in  North  Germany  their  congregations  and  monasteries, 
and,  by  their  control  of  public  education,  seemed  in  a  fairway  to  eventually 
make  Catholicism  supreme  in  the  empire. 

This  state  of  affairs  Bismarck  set  himself  energetically  to  reform.  The 
minister  of  religious  affairs  was  forced  to  resign,  and  his  place  was  taken 
by  Falk,  a  sagacious  statesman,  who  introduced  a  new  school  law,  bringing 
the  whole  educational  system  under  state  control,  and  carefully  regulating 
the  power  of  the  clergy  over  religious  and  moral  education.  This  law  met 
with  such  violent  opposition  that  all  the  personal  influence  of  The  New  Laws 
Bismarck  and  Falk  were  needed  to  carry  it,  and  it  gave  such  Against 
deep  offence  to  the  pope  that  he  refused  to  receive  the  German  Church  Power 
ambassador.  He  declared  the  Falk  law  invalid,  and  the  German  bishops 
united  in  a  declaration  against  the  chancellor.  Bismarck  retorted  by  a  law 
expelling  the  Jesuits  from  the  empire. 

In  1873  the  state  of  affairs  became  so  embittered  that  the  rights  and 
liberties  of  the  citizens  seemed  to  need  protection  against  a  priesthood 
armed  with  extensive  powers  of  discipline  and  excommunication.  In  con- 
sequence Bismarck  introduced,  and  by  his  eloquence  and  influence  carried, 
what  were  known  as  the  May  Laws.  These  provided  for  the  scientific 
education  of  the  Catholic  clergy,  the  confirmation  of  clerical  appointments 
by  the  state,  and  a  tribunal  to  consider  and  revise  the  conduct  of  the 
bishops. 

These  enactments    precipitated  a  bitter  contest   between   church  and 
state,  while  the  pope  declared  the  May  Laws  null  and  void  and  threatened 
with   excommunication  all  priests  who  should   submit  to  them.      The   state 
retorted  by  withdrawing  its  financial  support  from  the  Catholic  church  and 
abolishing  those  clauses  of  the  constitution  under  which  the  church  claimed 
independence  of  the  state.      Pope  Pius  IX.  died  in    1878,  and  on   the  elec- 
tion of  Leo  XIII.  attempts  were  made  to  reconcile  the  exist- 
ing differences.      The   reconciliation    was    a    victory    for    the      the  Chnrch 
church,   the    May  Laws    ceasing  to   be  operative,  the  church 
revenues  being  restored  and   the  control  of  the  clergy  over  education  in 
considerable  measure  regained.      New  concessions  were  granted  in  1886  and 
1887,  anc*  Bismarck  felt  himself  beaten  in  his  long  conflict  with  his  clerical 
opponents,  who  had  proved  too  strong  and  deeply  entrenched  for  him. 

Economic  questions  became  also  prominent,  the  revenues  of  the  empire 
requiring  some  change  in  the  system  of  free  trade  and  the  adoption  of  pro- 
tective duties,  while  the  railroads  were  acquired  by  the  various  state  of  the 
empire.  Meanwhile  ,the  rapid  growth  of  socialism  excited  apprehension, 
which  was  added  to  when  two  attempts  were  made  on  the  life  of  the  em- 


240  BISMARCK  AND  THE  NEW  EMPIRE  OF  GERMANY 

peror.     These  were  attributed  to  the  Socialists,  and   severe   laws  for  the 
suppression  of  socialism  were  enacted.      Bismarck  also   sought  to   cut   the 
The  Socialists      ground  from  under  the  feet  of  the  Socialists  by  an  endeavor 
and  the  in-      to  improve  the  condition   of   the  working  classes.      In    1881 
suranceLaws    laws  were  passed  compelling  employers  to  insure  their  work- 
men in  case  of  sickness  or  accident,  and  in  1888  a  system   of  compulsory 
insurance    against    death    and    old    age    was    introduced.      None    of    these 
measures,  however,  checked  the  growth  of  socialism,  which  very  actively 
continued. 

In  1882  a  meeting  was  arranged  by  the  chancellor  between  the  emper- 
ors of  Germany,  Russia,  and  Austria,  which  was  looked  upon  in  Europe  as 
a  political  alliance.  In  1878  Russia  drifted  somewhat  apart  from  Ger- 
many, but  in  the  following  year  an  alliance  of  defence  and  offence  was  con- 
cluded with  Austria,  and  a  similar  alliance  at  a  later  date  with  Italy.  This, 
which  still  continues,  is  known  as  the  Triple  Alliance  In  1877  Bismarck 
announced  his  intention  to  retire,  being  worn  out  with  the  great  labors  of 
his  position.  To  this  the  emperor,  who  felt  that  his  state  rested  on  the 
shoulders  of  the  "  Iron  Chancellor,"  would  not  listen,  though  he  gave  him 
Indefinite  leave  of  absence. 

On  March  9,  1888,  Emperor  William  died.  He  was  ninety  years  of 
age,  having  been  born  in  1797.  He  was  succeeded  by  his  son  Frederick, 
then  incurably  ill  from  a  cancerous  affection  of  the  throat,  which  carried  him 
to  the  grave  after  a  reign  of  ninety-nine  days.  His  oldest  son,  William, 
succeeded  on  June  15,  1888,  as  William  II. 

The  liberal  era  which  was  looked  for  under  Frederick  was  checked  by 
his  untimely  death,  his  son  at  once  returning  to  the  policy  of  William  I.  and 
William  H.  and  Bismarck.  He  proved  to  be  far  more  positive  and  dictatorial 
the  Dismissal  in  disposition  than  his  grandfather,  with  decided  and  vigorous 
Iarc  views  of  his  own,  which  soon  brought  him  into  conflict  with 
the  equally  positive  chancellor.  The  result  was  a  rupture  with  Bismarck, 
and  his  dismissal  from  the  premiership  in  1890.  The  young  emperor  subse- 
quently devoted  himself  in  a  large  measure  to  the  increase  of  the  army  and 
navy,  a  policy-which  brought  him  into  frequent  conflicts  with  the  Reichstag, 
whose  rapidly  growing  socialistic  membership  was  in  strong  opposition  to 
this  development  of  militarism. 

The  old  statesman,  to  whom  Germany  owed  so  much,  was  deeply  ag- 
grieved by  this  lack  of  gratitude  on  the  part  of  the  self-opinionated  young 
emperor.  Subsequently  a  reconciliation  took  place.  But  the  political  career 
of  the  great  Bismarck  was  at  an  end,  and  he  died  on  July  30,  1898.  It  is  an 
interesting  coincidence  that  almost  at  the  same  time  died  the  equally  great, 


BISMARCK  AND  THE  NEW  EMPIRE  OF  GERMANY  341 

but  markedly  different,  statesman  of  England,  William  Ewart  Gladstone. 
Count  Cavour,  the  third  great  European  statesman  of  the  last  half  of  the 
nineteenth  century,  had  completed  his  work  and  passed  away  nearly  forty 
years  before. 

The  career  of  William  II.  has  been  one  of  much  interest  and  some 
alarm  to  the  other  nations  of  Europe.  His  eagerness  for  the  development 
of  the  army  and  navy,  and  the  energy  with  which  he  pushed  forward  its 
organization  and  sought  to  add  to  its  strength,  seemed  significant  of  warlike 
intentions,  and  there  was  dread  that  this  energetic  young  monarch  might 
break  the  peace  of  Europe,  if  only  to  prove  the  irresistible  strength  of  the 
military  machine  he  had  formed.  But  as  years  went  on  the  The  Develop- 
apprehensions  to  which  his  early  career  and  expressions  gave  mentof  the 
rise  were  quieted,  and  the  fear  that  he  would  plunge  Europe  German  Army 
into  war  vanished.  The  army  and  navy  began  to  appear  rather  a  costly 
plaything  of  the  active  young  man  than  an  engine  of  destruction,  while  it 
tended  in  considerable  measure  to  the  preservation  of  peace  by  rendering 
Germany  a  power  dangerous  to  go  to  war  with. 

The  speeches  with  which  the  emperor  began  his  reign  showed  an  exag- 
gerated sense  of  the  imperial  dignity,  though  his  later  career  indicated  far 
more  judgment  and  good  sense  than  the  early  display  of  overweening  self- 
importance  promised,  and  the  views  of  William  II.  now  command  far  more 
respect  than  they  did  at  first.  He  has  shown  himself  a  man  of  exuberant 
energy.  Despite  a  permanent  weakness  of  his  left  arm  and  a  serious  affec- 
tion of  the  ear,  he  early  became  a  skilful  horseman  and  an  untiring  hunter, 
as  well  as  an  enthusiastic  yachtsman,  and  there  are  few  men  in  the  empire 
more  active  and  enterprising  to-day  than  the  Kaiser. 

A  principal  cause  of  the  break  between  William  and  Bismarck  was  the 

system  of  partial  state  socialism  established  by  him,  of  which 
; |          ,  ,      ,  n  11-  i        -T-i  •  State  Socialism 

the  old  chancellor  strongly  disapproved.      I  his  was  a  system 

of  compulsory  old  age  insurance,  through  which  workmen  and  their  em- 
ployers— aided  by  the  state — were  obliged  to  provide  for  the  support  of 
artisans  after  a  certain  age.  The  system  seems  to  have  worked  satisfacto- 
rily, but  socialism  of  a  more  radical  kind  has  grown  in  the  empire  far  more 
rapidly  than  the  emperor  has  approved  of,  and  he  has  vigorously,  though 
unsuccessfully,  endeavored  to  prevent  its  increase.  Another  of  his  favorite 
measures,  a  religious  education  bill,  he  was  obliged  to  withdraw 'on  account 
of  the  opposition  it  excited.  On  more  than  one  occasion  he  has  come  into 
sharp  conflict  with  the  Reichstag  concerning  increased  taxation  for  the  army 
and  navy,  and  a  strong  party  against  his  autocratic  methods  has  sprung  up, 
and  has  forced  him  more  than  once  to  recede  from  warmly-cherished  measures. 


242  BISMARCK  AND  THE  NEW  EMPIRE  OF  GERMANY 

It  may  be  of  interest  here  to  say  something  concerning  the  organic 
tion  of  the  existing  German   empire.     The  constitution  of  this  empire,  as 
Constitution  of    adopted  April    16,  1871,  proposes  to  "form  an  eternal  union 
the  German       for  the  protection  of  the  realm  and  the  care  of  the  welfare  of 
Empire  tjle  Qerman  people,"  and  places  the  supreme  direction  of  mili- 

tary and  political  affairs  in  the  King  of  Prussia,  under  the  title  of  Deutscher 
Kaiser  (German  emperor).  The  war-making  powers  of  the  emperor,  how- 
ever, are  restricted,  since  he  is  obliged  to  obtain  the  consent  of  the  Buridesrath 
(the  Federal  Council)  before  he  can  declare  war  otherwise  than  for  the  defence 
of  the  realm.  His  authority  as  emperor,  in  fact,  is  much  less  than  that 
which  he  exercises  as  King  of  Prussia,  since  the  imperial  legislature  is  inde- 
pendent of  him,  he  having  no  power  of  veto  over  the  laws  passed  by  it. 

This  legislature  consists  of  two  bodies,  the  Bundesrath,  representing 
the  states  of  the  union,  whose  members,  58  in  number,  are  chosen  for  each 
session  by  the  several  state  governments  ;  and  the  Reichstag,  representing 
the  people,  whose  members,  397  in  number,  are  elected  by  universal  suf- 
frage for  periods  of  five  years.  The  German  union,  as  now  constituted, 
comprises  four  kingdoms,  six  grand  duchies,  five  duchies,  seven  principali- 
ties, three  cities,  and  the  Reichsland  of  Alsace-Lorraine ;  twenty-six 
separate  states  in  all.  It  includes  all  the  German  peoples  with  the  ex- 
ception of  those  of  Austria. 

The  progress  of  Germany  within  the  century  under  review  has  been 
very  great.  The  population  of  the  states  of  the  empire,  24,831,000  at  the 
end  of  the  Napoleonic  wars,  is  now  over  52,000,000,  having  more  than 
doubled  in  number.  The  wealth  of  the  country  has  grown  in  a  far  greater 

ratio,  and  Germany  to-day  is  the  most  active  manufacturing 
The  Progress  of  .  .  .  /_  A       •      1  i  •      -i      i 

Germany  nation  on  the- continent  of  hurope.  Agriculture  has  similarly 
been  greatly  developed,  and  one  of  its  products,  the  sugar 
beet,  has  become  a  principal  raw  material  of  manufacture,  the  production  of 
beet-root  sugar  having  increased  enormously.  The  commerce  of  the  empire 
has  similarly  augmented,  it  having  become  one  of  the  most  active  commercial 
nations  of  the  earth.  Its  imports,  considerable  in  quantity,  consist  largely 
of  raw  materials  and  food  stuffs,  while  it  vies  with  Great  Britain  and  the 
United  States  in  the  quantity  of  finished  products  sent  abroad.  In  short, 
Germany  has  taken  its  place  to-day  as  one  of  the  most  energetic  of  pro- 
ductive and  commercial  nations,  and  its  wealth  and  importance  have 
increased  correspondingly. 


CHAPTER  XV. 

Gladstone,  the  Apostle  of  Liberalism  in  England. 

IT  is  a  fact  of  much  interest,  as  showing  the  growth  of  the  human  mind, 
that  William  Ewart  Gladstone,  the  great  advocate  of  English  Liberal- 
ism, made  his  first  political  speech  in  vigorous  opposition  to  the  Reform 
Bill  of  1831.  He  was  then  a  student  at  Oxford  University,  but  this  boyish 
address  had  such  an  effect  upon  his  hearers,  that  Bishop  Wordsworth  felt 
sure  the  speaker  "would  one  day  rise  to  be  Prime  Minister  of  England." 
This  prophetic  utterance  may  be  mated  with  another  one,  Gladstone's 
by  Archdeacon  Denison,  who  said  :  "I  have  just  heard  the  First  Political 
best  speech  I  ever  heard  in  my  life,  by  Gladstone,  against  the  Address 
Reform  Bill.  But,  mark  my  words,  that  man  will  one  day  be  a  Liberal, 
for  he  argued  against  the  Bill  on  liberal  ground." 

Both  these  far-seeing  men  hit  the  mark.  Gladstone  became  Prime 
Minister  and  the  leader  of  the  Liberal  Party  in  England.  Yet  he  had  been 
reared  as  a  Conservative,  and  for  many  years  he  marched  under  the  banner 
of  Conservatism.  His  political  career  began  in  the  first  Reform  Parlia- 
ment, in  January,  1833.  Two  years  afterward  he  was  made  an  under- 
secretary in  Sir  Robert  Peel's  Cabinet.  It.  was  under  the  same  , 

J  Gladstone  in 

Premier  that  he  first  became  a  full  member  of  the  Cabinet,  in       Parliament 
1845,  as  Secretary  of  State  for  the  Colonies.      He  was  still  a      and  the 
Tory  in  home  politics,  but  had  become  a  Liberal  in  his  com- 
mercial ideas,  and    was   Peel's  right-hand    man    in    carrying   out    his  great 
commercial  policy. 

The  repeal  of  the  Corn-laws  was  the  work  for  which  his  Cabinet  had 
been  formed,  and  Gladstone,  as  the  leading  Free-trader  in  the  Tory  ranks, 
was  called  to  it.  As  for  Cobden,  the  apostle  of  Free-trade,  Gladstone 
admired  him  immensely.  "  I  do  not  know,"  he  said  in  later  years,  "  that 
there  .is  in  any  period  a  man  whose  public  career  and  life  were  nobler  of 
more  admirable.  Of  course,  I  except  Washington.  Washington,  to  my 
mind,  is  the  purest  figure  in  history."  As  an  advocate  of  Free-trade  Glad- 
stone first  came  into  connection  with  another  noble  figure,  that  of  John 
Bright,  who  was  to  remain  associated  with  him  during  most  of  his 
career.  In  1857  he  first  took  rank  as  one  of  the  great  moral  forces  of 

243 


244  GLADSTONE,  THE  APOSTLE  OF  LIBERALISM 

modern  times.  In  that  year  he  visited  Naples,  where  he  saw  the  barbarous 
treatment  of  political  prisoners  under  the  government  of  the  infamous  King 
Bomba,  and  described  them  in  letters  whose  indignation  was  breathed  in 
such  tremendous  tones  that  England  was  stirred  to  its  depths 
an<^  a^  Europe  awakened.  These  thrilling  epistles  gave  the 
cause  of  Italian  freedom  an  impetus  that  had  much  to  do  with 
its  subsequent  success,  and  gained  for  Gladstone  the  warmest  veneration  of 
patriotic  Italians. 

In  1852  he  first  came  into  opposition  with  the  man  against  whom  he 
was  to  be  pitted  during  the  remainder  of  his  career,  Benjamin  Disraeli,  who 
had  made  himself  a  power  in  Parliament,  and  in  that  year  became  Chan- 
cellor of  the  Exchequer  in  Lord  Derby's  Cabinet  and  leader  of  the  House 
of  Commons.  The  revenue  Budget  introduced  by  him  showed  a  sad  lack  of 
financial  ability,  and  called  forth  sharp  criticisms,  to  which  he  replied  in 
a  speech  made  up  of  scoffs,  gibes  and  biting  sarcasms,  so  daring  and  auda- 
cious in  character  as  almost  to  intimidate  the  House.  As  he  sat  down  Mr. 
Gladstone  rose  and  launched  forth  into  an  oration  which  became  historic. 
He  gave  voice  to  that  indignatipn  which  lay  suppressed  beneath  the  cowed 
feeling  which  for  the  moment  the  Chancellor  of  the  Exchequer's  perform- 
ance had  left  amon^r  his  hearers.  In  a  few  minutes  the 
First  Contest  -i  «  i  •  1  -11  •  11, 

Between  Glad-  House  was  wildly  cheering  the  intrepid  champion   who   had 
stone  and          rushed  into  the  breach,  and  when  Mr.  Gladstone  concluded, 
having  torn  to  shreds  the  proposals  of  the  Budget,  a  majority 
followed  him  into  the  division  lobby,  and  Mr.  Disraeli  found  his  govern- 
ment beaten  by  nineteen  votes.    Such  was  the  first  great  encounter  between 
the  two  rivals. 

Lord  Derby  resigned  at  once,  and  politics  were  plunged  into  a  condi- 
tion of  the  wildest  excitement  and  confusion.  Mr.  Gladstone  was  the  butt 
of  Protectionist  execration.  He  was  near  being  thrown  out  of  the  window 
at  the  Carlton  Club  by  twenty  extreme  Tories,  who,  coming  upstairs  after 
dinner,  found  him  alone  in  the  drawing-room.  They  did  not  quite  go  this 
length,  thoueh  they  threatened  to  do  so,  but  contented  themselves  with 

o  o  J 

insulting  him. 

In  the  Cabinet  that  followed,  headed  by  Lord  Aberdeen,  Gladstone 
succeeded  Disraeli  as  Chancellor  of  the  Exchequer,  a  position  in  which  he 
was  to  make  a  great  mark.  In  April,  1853,  h£  introduced  his  first  Budget, 
a  marvel  of  ingenious  statemanship,  in  its  highly  successful  effort  to  equal- 
ize taxation.  -It  remitted  various  taxes  which  had  pressed  hard  upon  the 
poor  and  restricted  business,  and  replaced  them  by  applying  the  succession 
duty  to  real  estate,  increasing  the  duty  on  spirits,  and  extending  the  income 


GLADSTONE,  THE  APOSTLE  OF  LIBERALISM  245 

tax.  The  latter  Gladstone  spoke  of  as  an  emergency  tax,  only  to  be 
applied  in  times  of  national  danger,  and  presented  a  plan  to  extinguish  it  in 
1860.  His  plan  failed  to  work.  Nearly  fifty  years  have  passed  since  then, 
and  the  income  tax  still  remains,  seemingly  a  fixed  element  of  the  British 
revenue  system. 

Taken  altogether,  and  especially  in  its  expedients  to  equalize  taxation, 
this  first   Budget  of  Mr.  Gladstone  may  be  justly  called  the   Gladstone's 
greatest  of  the  century.     The  speech  in  which   it  was  Intro-      Great  Bud- 
duced  and  expounded  created  an  extraordinary  impression  on      getspeec 
the  House  and  the  country.     For  the  first  time  in   Parliament  figures  were 
made  as  interesting  as  a  fairy  tale  ;  the  dry  bones  of  statistics  were  invested 
with  a  new  and  potent  life,  and   it  was  shown  how  the  yearly  balancing  of 
the  national  accounts  might  be  directed  by  and  made   to   promote  the  pro- 
foundest  and  most  fruitful  principles  of  statesmanship.     With  such  lucidity 
and   picturesqueness  was  this  financial  oratory  rolled  forth   that   the  dullest 
intellect  could  follow  with  pleasure   the  complicated  scheme  ;  and  for  five 
hours  the  House  of  Commons   sat  as  if  it  were  under  the   sway  of  a  magi- 
cian's wand.     When  Mr.  Gladstone  resumed   his  seat,  it  was   felt   that  the 
career  of  the  coalition  Ministry  was  assured  by  the  genius  that  was  discov- 
ered in  its  Chancellor  of  the  Exchequer. 

It  was,  indeed,  to  Gladstone's  remarkable  oratorical  powers  that  much 
of  his  success  as  a  statesman  was  due.     No  man  of  his  period  was  his  equal 
in  swaying  and   convincing  his  hearers.      His   rich   and  musical  voice,  his 
varied  and   animated  gestures,  his  impressive  and  vigorous  delivery,  great 
fluency,  and  wonderful    precision    of  statement,    gave    him  a   Gladstone's 
power  over  an   audience  which   few  men   of  the   century  have      Powers  as 
enjoyed.      His    sentences,    indeed,  were    long    and    involved,      an  Orator 
growing  more  so  as  his  years  advanced,  but  their  fine  choice  of  words,  rich 
rhetoric,  and  eloquent  delivery  carried  away  all  that  heard  him,  as  did  his 
deep  earnestness,  and  intense  conviction  of  the  truth  of  his  utterances. 

We  must  pass  rapidly  over  a  number  of  years  of  Gladstone's  career, 
through  most  of  which  he  continued  to  serve  as  Chancellor  of  the  Ex 
chequer,  and  to  amaze  and  delight  the  country  by  the  financial  reforms 
effected  in  his  annual  Budgets.  Between  1853  and  1866  those  reforms  rep- 
resented a  decrease  in  the  weight  of  the  burden  of  the  national  revenue 
amounting  to  ^13,000,000. 

Meanwhile  his  Liberalism  had  been  steadily  growing,  and  reached  its 
culmination  in  1865,  when  the  great  Tory  university  of  Oxford,  which  he 
had  long  represented,  rejected  him  as  its  member.  At  once  he  offered  him- 
self as  a  candidate  for  South  Lancashire,  in  which  his  native  place  was  situ- 


246  GLADSTONE,  THE  APOSTLE  OF  LIBERALISM 

ated,  saying,  in  the  opening-  of  his  speech  at  Manchester :  "At  last,  my 
friends,  I  am  come  among  you  ;  to  use  an  expression  which  has  become  verj 
famous  and  is  not  likely  to  be  forgotten,  '  I  am  come  among  you  unmuz- 
zled.'" 

Unmuzzled  he  was,  as  his  whole  future   career  was   to  show.     Oxford 

had,  in  a  measure,  clipped  his  wings.      Now  he  was  free  to  give  the  fullest 

Gladstone  the      expression  to  his  liberal  faith,  and  to  stand  before  the  country 

Liberal  Leader  as  the  great  apostle  of  reform.     In  1866  he  became,  for  the 

the  House    ^rst   tjme  jn  ^jg  careerj  leader   of  the  House   of  Commons — 

Lord  Russel,  the  Prime  Minister,  being  in   the  House   of  Lords.     Many  of 

his  friends  feared  for  him  in  this  difficult  position ;  but   the  event  proved 

that  they  had  no  occasion  for  alarm,  he   showing  himself  one   of  the   most 

successful  leaders  the  House  had  ever  had. 

His  first  important  duty  in  this  position  was  to  introduce  the  new  suf- 
frage Reform  Bill,  a  measure  to  extend  the  franchise  in  counties  and  bor- 
oughs that  would  have  added  about  400,000  voters  to  the  electorate.  In 
the  debate  that  followed  Gladstone  and  Disraeli  were  again  pitted  against 
each  other  in  a  grand  oratorical  contest.  Disraeli  taunted  him  with  his 

youthful  speech  at  Oxford  against  the  Reform  Bill  of  1831. 
The  Suffrage  *.  ,  ..  ,  .  .  &,  .  ,  ,.  . 

Reform  Bill       Gladstone   replied  m  a  burst  of  vigorous  eloquence,  in  which 

he  scored  his  opponent  for  lingering  in  a  conservatism  from 
which  the  speaker  gloried  in  having  been  strong  enough  to  break.  He  and 
the  Cabinet  were  pledged  to  stand  or  fall  with  the  Bill  But,  if  it  fell,  the 
principle  of  right  and  justice  which  it  involved  would  not  fall.  It  was  sure, 
to  survive  and  triumph  in  the  future.  He  ended  with  this  stirring  predic- 
tion : 

"  You  cannot  fight  against  the  future.  Time  is  on  our  side.  The  great 
social  forces  which  move  onwards  in  their  might  and  majesty,  and  which  the 
tumult  of  our  debates  does  not  for  a  moment  impede  or  disturb,  those  great 
social  forces  are  against  you  :  they  are  marshalled  on  our  side  ;  and  the  ban- 
ner which  we  now  carry  into  this  fight,  though  perhaps  at  some  moment  it 
may  droop  over  our  sinking  heads,  yet  it  soon  again  will  float  in  the  eye  of 
Heaven,  and  it  will  be  borne  by  the  firm  hands  of  the  united  people  of  the 
three  kingdoms,  perhaps  not  to  an  easy,  but  to  a  certain,  and  to  a  not  far 
distant,  victory." 

Disraeli  and  his  party  won.  The  Bill  was  defeated.  But  its  defeat 
roused  the  people  almost  as  they  had  been  roused  in  1832.  A  formidable 
riot  broke  out  in  London.  Ten  thousand  people  marched  in  procession 
past  Gladstone's  residence,  singing  odes  in  honor  of  "  the  People's 
William."  There  were  demonstrations  in  his  favor  and  in  support  of  the 


GLADSTONE,  THE  APOSTLE  OF  LIBERALISM  247 

Bill  throughout  the  country.     The  agitation  continued   during  the  winter, 
its  fire  fed  by  the  eloquence  of  another  of  the  great  orators  of  the  century, 
the   "tribune   of  the  people,"  John    Bright.      This    distingu-    England 
ished    man    and     powerful    public    speaker,    through  all  his       Agitated  on 
life    a    strenuous    advocate    of    moral    reform    and    political 
progress,  had  begun  his  parliamentary  career  as  an  advocate  of  the  Reform 
Bill  of  1831-32.      He  now  became  one  of  the  great  leaders  in  the  new  cam- 
paign, and  through  his  eloquence  and  that  of  Gladstone  the  force  of  public 
opinion    rose  to  such  a  height  that  the  new  Derby-Disraeli  ministry  found 
itself  obliged  to  bring  in  a  Bill  similar  to  that  which  it  had  worked  so  hard 
to  overthrow. 

And  now  a  striking  event  took  place.  The  Tory  Reform  Bill 
was  satisfactory  to  Gladstone  in  its  general  features,  but  he  proposed  many 
improvements — lodger  franchise,  educational  and  savings-bank  franchises, 
enlargement  of  the  redistribution  of  seats,  etc. — every  one  of  which  was 
yielded  in  committee,  until,  as  one  lord  remarked,  nothing  of  the  original 
Bill  remained  but  the  opening  word,  "Whereas."  This  bill,  really  the  work 
of  Gladstone,  and  more  liberal  than  the  one  which  had  been  defeated,  was 
passed,  and  Toryism,  in  the  very  success  of  its  measure,  suffered  a  crushing 
defeat.  To  Gladstone,  as  the  people  perceived,  their  right  to  vote  was  due. 

But  Disraeli  was  soon  to  attain  to  the  exalted  office  for  which  he  had 
long  been  striving.      In  February,  1868,  failing  health  caused    Djsraen  Be- 
Lord  Derby    to  resign,  and  Disraeli  was    asked    to    form  a      comes  Prime 
new  administration.     Thus  the  "  Asian   Mystery,"  as  he  had      Mmister 
been    entitled,    reached    the    summit   of  his  ambition,  in  becoming  Prime 
Minister  of  England. 

He  was  not  to  hold  this  position  long.  Gladstone  was  to  reach  the 
same  high  eminence  before  the  year  should  end.  Disraeli's  government, 
beginning  in  February,  1868,  was  defeated  on  the  question  of  the  disestab- 
lishment of  the  Irish  Church  ;  an  appeal  to  the  country  resulted  in  a  large 
Liberal  gain  ;  and  on  December  4th  the  Queen  sent  for  Mr.  Gladstone  and 
commissioned  him  to  form  a  new  ministry,  The  task  was  completed  by 
the  Qth,  Mr.  Bright,  who  had  aided  so  greatly  in  the  triumph  of  the 
Liberals,  entering  the  new  cabinet  as  President  of  the  Board  of  Trade. 
Thus  at  last,  after  thirty-five  years  of  active  public  life,  Mr.  Glad-  Q|adstone  is 
stone  was  at  the  summit  of  power — Prime  Minister  of  Great  Made  Prime 
Britain  with  a  strong  majority  in  Parliament  in  his  support.  Mmister 

Bishop  Wilberforce,  who  met  him  in  this  hour  of  triumph,  wrote  of  him 
thus  in  his  journal :  "  Gladstone  as  ever  great,  earnest,  and  honest ;  as 


248  GLADSTONE,  THE  APOSTLE  OF  LIBERALISM 

unlike  the  tricky  Disraeli  as  possible.      He  is  so  delightfully  true  and  the 
same  ;  just  as  full  of  interest  in  every  good  thing  of  every  kind." 

The  period  which  followed  the  election  of  1868 — the  period  of  the 
Gladstone  Administration  of  1868-74 — has  been  called  "the  golden  age  of 
Liberalism."  It  was  certainly  a  period  of  great  reforms. .  The  first,  the 
most  heroic,  and  probably — taking  all  the  results  into  account — the  most 
completely  successful  of  these,  was  the  disestablishment  of  the  Irish 
Church. 

Though  Mr.  Gladstone  had  a  great  majority  at  his  back,  the  difficulties 
which  confronted  him  were  immense.  In  Ireland  the  wildest  protests  eman- 
ated from  the  friends  of  the  Establishment.  The  "  loyal  minority  "  declared 
that  their  loyalty  would  come  to  an  end  if  the  measure  were  passed.  One 
synod,  speaking  with  a  large  assumption,  even  for  a  synod,  of  inspired 
knowledge,  denounced  it  as  "highly  offensive  to  the  Almighty  God."  The 
Orangemen  threatened  to  rise  in  insurrection.  A  martial  clergyman  pro- 
posed to  "  kick  the  Queen's  crown  into  the  Boyne  "  if  she  assented  to  such 
a  Bill.  Another  announed  his  intention  of  fighting  with  the  Bible  in  one 
hand  and  the  sword  in  the  other.  These  appeals  and  these  threats  of  civil 
war,  absurd  as  they  proved  to  be  in  reality,  were  not  without  producing 
some  effect  in  Great  Britain,  and  it  was  amid  a  din  of  warnings,  of  misgiv- 
ing counsels,  and  of  hostile  eries,  that  Mr.  Gladstone  proceeded  to  carry  out 
the  mandate  of  the  nation  which  he  had  received  at  the  polls. 

On  the  first  of  March,  1869,  he  introduced  his  Disestablishment  Bill. 
Disestablish-  His  speech  was  one  of  the  greatest  marvels  amongst  his  ora- 
mentofthe  torical  achievements.  His  chief  opponent  declared  that, 
Irish  Church  thougn  it  lasted  three  hours,  it  did  not  contain  a  redundant 
word.  The  scheme  which  it  unfolded — a  scheme  which  withdrew  the  tem- 
poral establishment  of  a  Church  in  such  a  manner  that  the  Church  was 
benefited,  not  injured,  and  which  lifted  from  the  backs  of  an  oppressed  people 
an  intolerable  burden — was  a  triumph  of  creative  genius.  Leaving  aside 
his  Budgets,  which  stand  in  a  different  category,  it  seems  to  us  there  is  no 
room  to  doubt  that  in  his  record  of  constructive  legislation  this  measure  for 
the  disestablishment  of  the  Irish  Church  is  Mr.  Gladstone's  most  perfect 
masterpiece. 

Disraeli's  speech  in  opposition  to  this  measure  was  referred  to  by  the 
London  Times  as  "  flimsiness  relieved  by  spangles."  After  a  debate  in 
which  Mr.  Bright  made  one  of  his  most  famous  speeches,  the  bill  was  car- 
ried by  a  majority  of  118.  Before  this  strong  manifestation  of  the  popular 
will  the  House  of  Lords,  which  deeply  disliked  the  Bill,  felt  obliged  to 
way,  and  passed  it  by  a  majority  of  seven. 


GLADSTONE,  THE  APOSTLE  OF  LIBERALISM  249 

In  1870  Mr.  Gladstone  introduced  his  Irish  Land  Bill,  a  measure  of 
reform  which  Parliament  had  for  years  refused  to  grant.  By 

.          .    .  1111.      r  i  Tne  Irish  Land 

it  the  tenant  was  given  the  right  to  hold   his  farm  as  long  as      Bn|  Enacted 
he  paid  his  rent,  and  received  a  claim  upon  the  improvement 
made  by  himself  and  his  predecessors — a  tenant-right  which  he  could   sell. 
This  bill  was  triumphantly  carried  ;  and  another  important  Liberal  measure, 
Mr.  Forster's  Education  Bill,  became  law. 

In  the  following  sessions  the  tide  of  Liberal  reform  continued  on  its 
course.  Among  the  reforms  adopted  was  that  of  vote  by  ballot.  A 
measure  was  introduced  abolishing  purchase  in  the  Army ;  and  on  this  ques- 
tion Mr.  Gladstone  had  his  third  notable  conflict  with  the  Lords.  The  Lords 
threw  out  the  Bill.  The  imperious  Premier,  having  found  that  purchase  in 
the  Army  existed  only  by  royal  sanction,  advised  the  Queen  to  issue  a  Royal 
Warrant  cancelling  the  regulation.  By  a  single  act  of  executive  authority 
he  carried  out  a  reform  to  which  Parliament  had,  through  one  of  its  branches, 
refused  its  assent.  This  was  a  high-handed,  not  to  say  autocratic,  step,  and 
it  afforded  a  striking  revelation  of  the  capacities  in  boldness  and  resolu- 
tion of  Mr.  Gladstone's  character.  It  was  denounced  as  Caesarism  and 
Cromwellism  in  some  quarters  ;  in  others  as  an  unconstitutional  invocation 
of  the  royal  prerogative. 

But  the  career  of  reform  at  length  proved  too  rapid  for  the  country  to 
follow.  The  Government  was  defeated  in  1873  on  a  bill  for  University  Edu- 
cation in  Ireland.  Gladstone  at  once  resigned,  but,  as  Disraeli  declined  to 
form  a  Government,  he  was  obliged  to  resume  office.  In  1874  Defeat  of  Glad- 
he  took  the  bold  step  of  dissolving  Parliament  and  appealing  stone  and  the 
to  the  country  for  support.  If  he  were  returned  to  power  he  Liberals 
promised  to  repeal  the  income  tax.  He  was  not  returned.  The  Tory  party 
gained  a  majority  of  46.  Gladstone  at  once  resigned,  not  only  the  Premier- 
ship, but  the  leadership  of  the  Liberal  party,  and  retired  to  private  life — a 
much  needed  rest  after  his  many  years  of  labor.  Disraeli  succeeded  him  as 
Prime  Minister,  and  two  years  afterwards  was  raised  to  the  peerage  by  the 
Queen  as  the  Earl  of  Beaconsfield. 

Mr.  Gladstone  was  never  idle.  The  intervals  of  his  public  .duties  were 
filled  with  tireless  studies  and  frequent  literary  labors.  Chief  among  the 
latter  were  his  "  Homeric  Studies,"  works  which  showed  great  erudition  and 
active  mental  exercise,  though  not  great  powers  of  critical  discrimination. 
They  adopted  views  which  were  then  becoming  obsolete,  and  their  conclu- 
sions have  been  rejected  by  Homeric  scholars.  Gladstone's  greatness  was 
as  an  orator  and  a  moral  reformer,  not  as  a  great  logician  and  brilliant 
thinker. 


350  GLADSTONE,  THE  APOSTLE  OF  LIBERALISM 

In  the  period  at  which  we  have  arrived  his  moral  greatness  and  literary 
fervor  were  both  called  into  exercise  in  an  international  cause.  The 
Bulgarian  atrocities  of  1876 — spoken  of  in  Chapter  X — called  the  aged 
Gladstoneeon  statesman  from  his  retirement,  and  his  pamphlet  entitled 
the  Bulgarian  "Bulgarian  Horrors  and  the  Question  of  the  East,"  rang 
through  England  like  a  trumpet-call.  "  Let  the  Turks  now 
carry  away  their  abuses  in  the  only  possible  manner — by  carrying  off  them- 
selves," he  wrote.  "  Their  Zaptiehs  and  their  Mudirs,  their  Bimbashis  and 
their  Yuzbachis,  their  Kaimakams  and  their  Pashas,  one  and  all,  bag  and 
baggage,  shall,  I  hope,  clear  out  from  the  province  they  have  desolated 
and  profaned." 

He   followed  up   this  pamphlet  by  a  series  of  speeches,  delivered  to 

great  meetings  and  to  the  House  of  Commons,  with  which  for  four  years 

he  sought,  as  he  expressed  it,  "  night  and  day  to  counterwork  the  purpose 

of   Lord   Beaconsfield."     He  succeeded  ;    England  was    prevented   by  his 

His  Second          eloquence  from  joining  the  Turks  in  the  war ;  but  he  excited 

Great  Contest  the  fury  of  the  war  party  to  such  an  extent  that  at  one  time 

with  Disraeli    jt  was  not  safe  £or  jjjm  to  appear  }n  tne  streets  of  London. 

Nor  was  he  quite  safe  in  the  House  of  Commons,  where  the  Conservatives 
hated  him  so  bitterly  as  to  jeer  and  interrupt  him  whenever  he  spoke,  and  a 
party  of  them  went  so  far  as  to  mob  him  in  the  House. 

Yet  the  sentiment  he  had  aroused  saved  the  country  from  the  greatest 
of  the  follies  by  which  it  was  threatened  ;  and,  if  it  failed  to  stop  the  lesser 
adventures  in  which  Lord  Beaconsfield  found  an  outlet  for  the  passions  he 
had  unloosed, — an  annexation  of  Cyprus,  an  interference  in  Egypt,  an 
annexation  of  the  Transvaal,  a  Zulu  war  which  Mr.  Gladstone  denounced 
as  "  one  of  the  most  monstrous  and  indefensible  in  our  history,"  an  Afghan 
war  which  he  described  as  a  national  crime, — it  nevertheless  was  so  true  an 
interpretation  of  the  best,  the  deliberate,  judgment  of  the  nation,  that  it 
sufficed  eventually  to  bring  the  Liberal  party  back  to  power. 

This  took  place  in  1880.  In  the  campaign  for  the  Parliament,  elected 
in  that  year  Gladstone  took  a  most  active  part,  and  had  much  to  do  with 
the  great  Liberal  victory  that  followed.  In  the  face  of  the  overwhelming 
Gladstone  majority  that  was  returned  Lord  Beaconsfield  resigned  office, 

Again  Made      and  Gladstone  a  second  time  was  called  to  the  head  of  the 

Premier  government. 

As  in  the  previous,  so  in  the  present,  Gladstone  administration  the 
question  of  Ireland  loomed  up  above  all  others.  While  Beaconsfield 
remained  Premier  Ireland  was  lost  sight  of,  quite  dwarfed  by  the  Eastern 
question  upon  which  the  two  life-long  adversaries  measured  their  strength. 


GLADSTONE,  THE  APOSTLE  OF  LIBERALISM  251 

But  as  Turkey  went  down  in  public  interest  Ireland  rose.  The  Irish  people 
were  gaining  a  vivid  sense  of  their  power  under  the  Constitution.  And 
another  famine  came  to  put  the  land  laws  and  government  of  Ireland  to  a 
severe  test.  Still  more,  Ireland  gained  a  leader,  a  man  of  remarkable 
ability,  who  was  to  play  as  great  a  part  in  its  history  as  O'Connell  had  done 

half  a  century  before.      This  was  Charles  Stewart  Parnell,  the  _ 

J  .         Parnell  Becomes 

founder  of  the    Irish    Land   League — a  powerful    trade-union      the  Leader 
of    tenant   farmers — and   for  many  years   the    leader    of    the       of  the  Irish 
Irish    party    in    Parliament.      In   the    Parliament  of   1880  his 
followers  numbered  sixty-eight,  enough  to  make  him  a  power  to  be  dealt 
with  in  legislation. 

Gladstone,  in  assuming  control  of  the  new  government,  was  quite 
unaware  of  the  task  before  him.  When  he  had  completed  his  work  with 
the  Church  and  the  Land  Bills  ten  years  before,  he  fondly  fancied  that  the 
Irish  question  was  definitely  settled.  The  Home  Rule  movement,  which 
was  started  in  1870,  seemed  to  him  a  wild  delusion  which  would  die  away 
of  itself.  In  1884  he  said  :  "  I  frankly  admit  that  I  had  had  much  upon  my 
hands  connected  with  the  doings  of  the  Beaconsfield  Government  in  every 
quarter  of  the  world,  and  I  did  not  know — no  one  knew — the  severity  of 
the  crisis  that  was  already  swelling  upon  the  horizon,  and  that  shortly  after 
rushed  upon  us  like  a  flood." 

He  was  not  long  in  discovering  the  gravity  of  the  situation,  of  which 
the  House  had  been  warned  by  Mr.  Parnell.     The  famine  had  brought  its 
crop  of  misery,  and,  while  the  charitable  were  seeking  to  relieve  the  dis- 
tress, many  of  the  landlords  were  turning  adrift  their  tenants  The  Famine  and 
for    non-payment   of    rents.     The    Irish   party   brought    in   a      the  Bill  for 
Bill  for  the  Suspension  of  Evictions,  which    the  government       lnsh  Relief 
replaced  by  a  similar  one  for  Compensation  for  Disturbance.      This  was 
passed  with  a  large  majority  by  the  Commons,  but  was   rejected  by  the 
Lords,  and  Ireland  was  left  to  face  its  misery  without  relief. 

The  state  of  Ireland  at  that  moment  was  too  critical  to  be  dealt  with 
in  this  manner.  The  rejection  of  the  Compensation  for  Disturbance  Bill 
was,  to  the  peasantry  whom  it  had  been  intended  to  protect,  a  message  of 
despair,  and  it  was  followed  by  the  usual  symptom  of  despair  in  Ireland, 
an  outbreak  of  agrarian  crime.  On  the  one  hand  over  17,000  persons  were 
evicted  ;  on  the  other  there  was  a  dreadful  crop  of  murders  and  outrages. 
The  Land  League  sought  to  do  what  Parliament  did  not ;  but  in  doing  sc 
it  came  in  contact  with  the  law.  Moreover,  the  revolution — for  revolution 
it  seemed  to  be — grew  too  formidable  for  its  control ;  the  utmost  it  succeeded 
in  doing  was  in  some  sense  to  ride  without  directing  the  storm.  The  first 


252  GLADSTONE,  THE  APOSTLh  OF  LIBERALISM 

decisive  step  of  Mr.  Forster,  the  chief  secretary  for  Ireland,  was  to  strike 
a  blow  at  the  Land  League.  In  November  he  ordered  the  prosecution  of 
Mr.  Forster's  Mr.  Parnell,  Mr.  Biggar,  and  several  of  the  officials  of  the 
Policy  of  organization,  and  before  the  year  was  out  he  announced  his 
intention  of  introducing  a  Coercion  Bill.  This  step  threw 
the  Irish  members  under  Mr.  Parnell  and  the  Liberal  Government  into  rela- 
tions of  definitive  antagonism. 

Mr.  Forster  introduced  his  Coercion  Bill  on  January  24,  1881.  It  was 
a  formidable  measure,  which  enabled  the  chief  secretary,  by  signing  a  war- 
rant, to  arrest  any  man  on  suspicion  of  having  committed  a  given  offence, 
and  to  imprison  him  without  trial  at  the  pleasure  of  the  government.  It 
practically  suspended  the  liberties  of  Ireland.  The  Irish  members  ex- 
hausted every  resource  of  parliamentary  action  in  resisting  it,  and  their 
tactics  resulted  in  several  scenes  unprecedented  in  parliamentary  history.  In 
order  to  pass  the  Bill  it  was  necessary  to  suspend  them  in  a  body  several 
times.  Mr.  Gladstone,  with  manifest  pain,  found  himself,  as  leader  of  the 
House,  the  agent  by  whom  this  extreme  resolve  had  to  be  executed. 

The  Coercion  Bill  passed,  Mr.  Gladstone  introduced  his  Land  Bill  of 
Gladstone's  1 88 1,  which  was  the  measure  of  conciliation  intended  to 
New  Land  balance  the  measure  of  repression.  This  was  really  a  great  and 
sweeping  reform,  whose  dominant  feature  was  the  introduction 
of  the  novel  and  far-reaching  principle  of  the  State  stepping  in  between 
landlord  and  tenant  and  fixing  the  rents.  The  Bill  had  some  defects,  as  a 
series  of  amending  acts,  which  were  subsequently  passed  by  both  Liberal 
and  Tory  Governments,  proved  ;  but,  apart  from  these,  it  was  on  the  whole 
the  greatest  measure  of  land  reform  ever  passed  for  Ireland  by  the  Impe- 
rial Parliament. 

But  Ireland  was  not  yet  satisfied.  Parnell  had  no  confidence  in  the 
good  intentions  of  the  government,  and  took  steps  to  test  its  honesty, 
which  so  angered  Mr.  Forster  that  he  arrested  Mr.  Parnell  and  several 
other  leaders  and  pronounced  the  Land  League  an  illegal  body.  Forster 
was  well  meaning  but  mistaken.  He  fancied  that  by  locking  up  the  ring- 
leaders he  could  bring  quiet  to  the  country.  On  the  contrary,  affairs  were 
soon  far  worse  than  ever,  crime  and  outrage  spreading  widely. 

Stirring  Events     T        .  ,T        ^  .  .  n  u  f          •  i         AH 

in  Ireland  ^n  despair,  Mr.  rorster  released  rarneli  and  resigned.  All 
now  seemed  hopeful ;  coercion  had  proved  a  failure  ;  peace 
and  quiet  were  looked  for  ;  when,  four  days  afterward,  the  whole  country 
was  horrified  by  a  terrible  crime.  The  new  secretary  for  Ireland,  Lord 
Cavendish,  and  the  under-secretary,  Mr  Burke,  were  attacked  and  hacked 
to  death  with  knives  in  Phcenix  Park. 


GLADSTONE,  THE  APOSTLE  OF  LIBERALISM  253 

Everywhere  panic  and  indignation  arose.  A  new  Coercion  Act  was 
passed  without  delay.  It  was  vigorously  put  into  effect,  and  a  state  of 
virtual  war  between  England  and  Ireland  again  came  into  existence.  Great 
Britain,  in  her  usual  fashion  of  seeking  to  carry  the  world  on  her  shoulders, 
had  made  the  control  of  the  Suez  Canal  an  excuse  for  meddling  with  th«; 
government  of  Egypt. 

The  result  was  a  revolution  that  drove  Ismail  Pasha  from  his  throne 
As  the  British  still  held  control,  a  revolt  broke  out  among  the  people, 
headed  by  an  ambitious  leader  named  Arabi  Pasha,  and  Alexandria  wa& 
seized,  the  British  being  driven  out  and  many  of  them  killed.  Much  as 
Gladstone  deprecated  war,  he  felt  himself  forced  into  it.  John  Bright,  to 
whom  war  was  a  crime  that  nothing  could  warrant,  resigned  from  the  cabi- 
net, but  the  Government  acted  vigorously,  the  British  fleet  being  ordered 
to  bombard  Alexandria.  This  was  done  effectively.  The  city,  half  reduced 
to  ashes,  was  occupied  by  the  British,  Arabi  and  his  army 
withdrawing  in  haste.  Soon  afterwards  he  was  defeated  by  mentof  Alex- 
General  Wolseley  and  the  insurrection  was  at  an  end.  Egypt  andria  and 

remained  a  vassal  of   Great  Britain.     An  unfortunate  sequel       ?ea*h  of 

Gordon 

to    this    may    be    briefly    stated.      A    formidable    insurrection 
broke  out  in.  the  Soudan,  under   El  Mahdi,   a   Mohammedan  fanatic,  who 
captured  the  city  of  Khartoum  and  murdered  the  famous  General  Gordon. 
For  years  Upper  Egypt  was  lost  to  the  state,  it  being  recovered  only  at  the 
close  of  the  century  by  a  military  expedition. 

In  South  Africa  the  British  were  less  successful.  Here  a  war  had  been 
entered  into  with  the  Boers,  in  which  the  British  forces  suffered  a  severe 
defeat  at  Majuba  Hill.  Gladstone  did  not  adopt  the  usual  fashion  of  seek- 
ing revenge  by  the  aid  of  a  stronger  force,  but  made  peace,  the  Boers  gain- 
ing what  they  had  been  fighting  for. 

Disasters  like  this  weakened  the  administration.      Parnell  and   his   fol- 
lowers joined   hands  with  the  Tories,   and  a  vigorous  assault 
was    made    upon    the   government.      Slowly  its    majority  fell 
away,  and  at  length,  in  May,  1885,  it  was  defeated. 

The  scene  which  followed  was  a  curious  one.  The  Irish  raised  cries  of 
"  No  Coercion,"  while  the  Tories  delivered  themselves  up  to  a  frenzy  of 
jubilation,  waving  hats  and  handkerchiefs,  and  wildly  cheering.  Lord  Ran- 
dolph Churchill  jumped  on  a  bench,  brandished  his  hat  madly  above  his 
head,  and  altogether  behaved  as  if  he  were  beside  himself.  Mr.  Gladstone 
calmly  resumed  the  letter  to  the  Queen  which  he  had  been  writing  on  his 
knee,  while  the  clerk  at  the  table  proceeded  to  run  through  the  orders  of 
the  day,  as  if  nothing  particular  had  happened.  When  in  a  few  momenta 


254  GLADSTONE,  THE  APOSTLE  OF  LIBERALISM 

the  defeated  Premier  moved  the  adjournment,  he  did  so  still  holding  his 
letter  in  one  hand  and  the  pen  in  the  other,  and  the  Conservatives  surged 
through  the  doorway,  tumultuously  cheering. 

Gladstone's  great  opponent  was  no  longer  on  earth  to  profit  by  his 
defeat.  Beaconsfield  had  died  in  1881,  and  Lord  Salisbury  became  head  of 
the  new  Tory  Government,  one  which  owed  its  existence  to  Irish  votes.  It 
had  a  very  short  life.  Parnell  and  his  fellows  soon  tired  of  their  unnatural 
alliance,  turned  against  and  defeated  the  Government,  and  Gladstone  was 
sent  for  to  form  a  new  government.  On  February  I,  1886,  he  became 
Prime  Minister  of  Great  Britain  for  the  third  time. 

During  the  brief  interval  his  opinions  had  suffered  a  great  revolution. 
He  no  longer  thought  that  Ireland  had  all  it  could  justly  demand.  He  re- 
turned to  power  as  an  advocate  of  a  most  radical  measure,  that  of  Home 
Gladstone  a  Rule  for  Ireland,  a  restoration  of  that  separate  Parliament 
Convert  to  which  it  had  lost  in  1800.  He  also  had  a  scheme  to  buy  out 
Home  Rule  ^g  irjsn  landlords  and  establish  a  peasant  proprietary  by  state 
aid.  His  new  views  were  revolutionary  in  character,  but  he  did  not  hesitate 
— he  never  hesitated  to  do  what  his  conscience  told  him  was  right.  On  April 
8,  1886,  he  introduced  to  Parliament  his  Home  Rule  Bill. 

The  scene  that  afternoon  was  one  of  the  most  remarkable  in  Parlia- 
mentary history.  Never  before  was  such  interest  manifested  in  a  debate  by 
either  the  public  or  the  members  of  the  House.  In  order  to  secure  their 
places,  members  arrived  at  St.  Stephen's  at  six  o'clock  in  the  morning,  and 
spent  the  day  on  the  premises  ;  and,  a  thing  quite  unprecedented,  members 
A  Remarkable  w^°  cou^  not  find  places  on  the  benches  filled  up  the  floor  of 
Scene  in  Par.  the  House  with  rows  of  chairs.  The  strangers',  diplomats', 
peers',  and  ladies'  galleries  were  filled  to  overflowing.  Men 
begged  even  to  be  admitted  to  the  ventilating  passages  beneath  the  floor  of 
the  Chamber  that  they  might  in  some  sense  be  witnesses  of  the  greatest 
feat  in  the  lifetime  of  an  illustrious  old  man  of  eighty.  Around  Palace 
Yard  an  enormous  crowd  surged,  waiting  to  give  the  veteran  a  welcome  as 
he  drove  up  from  Downing  Street. 

Mr.  Gladstone  arrived  in  the  House,  pale  and  still  panting  from  the 
excitement  of  his  reception  in  the  streets.  As  he  sat  there  the  entire  Lib- 
eral party — with  the  exception  of  Lord  Hartington,  Sir  Henry  James,  Mr. 
Chamberlain  and  Sir  George  Trevelyan — and  the  Nationalist  members,  by 
a  spontaneous  impulse,  sprang  to  their  feet  and  cheered  him  again  and  again. 
The  speech  which  he  delivered  was  in  every  way  worthy  of  the  occasion. 
It  expounded,  with  marvelous  lucidity  and  a  noble  eloquence,  a  tremendous 
scheme  of  constructive  legislation — the  re-establishment  of  a  legislature  in 


GLADSTONE,  THE  APOSTLE  OF  LIBERALISM  255 

Ireland,  but  one  subordinate  to  the  Imperial  Parliament,  and  hedged  round 
with  every  safeguard  which  could  protect  the  unity  of  the  Empire.  It  took 
three  hours  in  delivery,  and  was  listened  to  throughout  with  the  utmost 
attention  on  every  side  of  the  House.  At  its  close  all  parties  united  in  a 
tribute  of  admiration  for  the  genius  which  had  astonished  them  with  such  an 
exhibition  of  its  powers. 

Yet  it  is  one  thing  to  cheer  an  orator,  another  thing  to  vote  for  a  revo- 
lution. The  Bill  was  defeated — as  it  was  almost  sure  to  be.  Mr.  Gladstone 
at  once  dissolved  Parliament  and  appealed  to  the  country  in  a  new  election, 
with  the  result  that  he  was  decisively  defeated.  His  bold  declaration  that 
the  contest  was  one  between  the  classes  and  the  masses  turned  the  aristocracy 
against  him,  while  he  had  again  roused  the  bitter  hatred  of  his  opponents. 

But  the  "  Grand  Old  Man  "  bided  his  time.  The  new  Salisbury  ministry 
was  one  of  coercion  carried  to  the  extreme  in  Ireland,  wholesale  eviction,  arrest 
of  members  of  Parliament,  suppression  of  public  meetings  by  force  of  arms, 
and  other  measures  of  violence  which  in  the  end  wearied  the  British  public 
and  doubled  the  support  of  Home  Rule.  In  1892  Mr.  Gladstone  returned 
to  power  with  a  majority  of  more  than  thirty  Home  Rulers  in  his  support. 

It  was  one  of  the  greatest  efforts  in  the  career  of  the  old  Parliamen- 
tary hero  when    he    brought    his    new  Home  Rule  Bill    before    the  House. 
Never  in  his  young  days  had  he  worked  more  earnestly  and    Giadstone>s 
incessantly.      He  disarmed  even  his  bitterest  enemies,  none  of      Last  and 
whom  now  dreamed  of  treating  him  with  disrespect.     Mr.  Bal- 
four  spoke  of  the  delight  and  fascination  with  which  even  his 
opponents  watched  his  leading  of  the  House  and  listened  to  his  unsurpassed 
eloquence.     Old  age  had  come  to  clothe  with  its  pathos,  as  well  as  with  its 
majesty,  the  white-haired,  heroic  figure.   The  event  proved  one  of  the  great- 
est   triumphs   of  his    life.     The   Bill    passed  with  a  majority  of  thirty-four. 
That  it  would  pass  in  the  House  of  Lords  no  one  looked  for.      It  was  de- 
feated there  by  a  majority  of  378  out  of  460. 

With  this  great  event  the  public  career  of  the  Grand  Old  Man  came  to 
an   end.     The  burden   had  grown  too  heavy  for  his  reduced  strength.      In 
March,  1894,  to  the  consternation  of  his  party,  he  ann^  unced 
his  intention  of  retiring  from  public  life.    The  Queen  offered,      Great  Career 
as  she  had  done  once  before,  to  raise  him  to  the  peerage  as  an 
earl,  but  he  declined  the  proffer.      His  own  plain  name  was  a  title  higher 
than  that  of  any  earldom  in  the  kingdom. 

On  May  19,  1898  William  Ewart  Gladstone  laid  down  the  burden  of  his 
life  as  he  had  already  done  that  of  labor.  The  greatest  and  noblest  figure  in 
legislative  life  of  the  nineteenth  century  had  passed  away  from  earth. 


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MICHAEL  DAVITT.  T.  fif-  HEALY- 

FOUR    GREAT    MODERN    IRISH    LEADERS 


CHAPTER  XVI. 

Ireland  the  Downtrodden. 

TIME  was  when    Ireland  was  free.      But  it  was   a  barbarian  freedom. 
The  island  had  more  kings  than  it  had  counties,  each  petty  chief 
bearing  the  royal  title,  while  their  battles  were  as  frequ-ent  as  those 
of  our  Indian  tribes  of  a  past  age.     The  island,  despite  the  fact  that  it  had 
an  active  literature  reaching  back  to  the  early  centuries  of  the  Christian 
era,  was  in  a  condition  of  endless  turmoil.     This  state  of  affairs  was  gradu- 
ally put  an  end  to  after  the  English  conquest;  but  the  civili-    Ireiand  in  the 
zation  which  was   introduced   into  the  island  was  made  bitter      PastCen- 
by  an  injustice  and  oppression  which  has  filled  the  Irish  heart 
with  an  undying  hatred  of   the  English   nation   and  a  ceaseless  desire  to 
break  loose  from  its  bonds. 

For  centuries,  indeed,  the  rule  of  England  was  largely  a  nominal  one, 
the  English  control  being  confined  to  a  few  coast  districts  in  the  east.  In 
the  interior  the  native  tribes  continued  under  the  rule  of  their  chiefs,  were 
governed  by  their  own  laws,  and  remained  practically  independent. 

It  was  not  until  the  reign  of  James  I.  that  England  became  master  of 
all  Ireland.  In  the  last  days  of  the  reign  of  Elizabeth  a  great  rising  against 
the  English  had  taken  place  in  Ulster,  under  a  chief  named  O'Neill.  The 
Earl  of  Essex  failed  to  put  it  down  and  was  disgraced  by  the  queen  in  con- 
sequence. The  armies  of  James  finally  suppressed  the  rebellion,  and  the 
unruly  island  now,  for  the  first  time,  came  fully  under  the 
control  of  an  English  king.  It  had  given  the  earlier  monarchs  Rebellion  and 
nothing1  but  trouble,  and  Tames  determined  to  weaken  its  the  Confisca- 

,  •      i  •    r        T-         i  i  i  •  r      .  tion  of  Ulster 

power    for    mischief.      I  o    do    so    he    took  possession  of  six 
counties  of  Ulster  and  filled  them  with  Scotch  and  English  colonists.     As 
for  the  Irish,  they  were  simply  crowded  out,  and  left  to  seek  a  living  where 
they  could.     There  was  no  place  left  for  them  but  the  marshes. 

This  act  of  ruthless  violence  filled  the  Irish  with  an  implacable  hatred 
of  their  oppressors  which  has  not  vanished  in  the  years  since  it  took  place. 
They  treasured  up  their  wrongs  for  thirty  years,  but  in  164 1.  when  England 
was  distracted  .by  its  civil  war,  they  rose  in  their  wrath,  fell  upon  the 
colonists,  and  murdered  all  who  could  not  save  themselves  by  flight.  For 

259 


25o  IRELAND  THE  DOWNTRODDEN 

eight  years,  while  the  English  had  their  hands  full  at  home,  the  Irish  held 
their  reconquered  lands  in  triumph,  but  in  1649  Cromwell  fell  upon  them 
with  his  invincible  Ironsides,  and  took  such  a  cruel  revenge  that  he  himself 
confessed  that  he  had  imbued  his  hands  in  blood  like  a  common  butcher. 
In  truth,  the  Puritans  looked  upon  the  Papists  as  outside  the  pale  of 
humanity,  and  no  more  to  be  considered  than  a  herd  of  wild 
beasts,  and  they  dealt  with  them  as  hunters  might  with 
Severity  and  noxious  animals. 

e  Irish0*  ^e  severity  of  Cromwell  was  threefold  greater  than  that 

of  James,  for  he  drove  the  Irish  out  of  three  provinces, 
Ulster,  Leinster  and  Munster,  bidding  them  go  and  find  bread  or  graves 
in  the  wilderness  of  Connaught.  Again  the  Irish  rose,  when  James  II.,  the 
dethroned  king,  came  to  demand  their  aid ;  and  again  they  were  over- 
thrown, this  time  in  the  memorable  Battle  of  the  Boyne.  William  III.  now 
completed  the  work  of  confiscation.  The  greater  part  of  the  remaining 
province  of  Connaught  was  taken  from  its  holders  and  given  to  English 
colonists.  The  natives  of  the  island  became  a  landless  people  in  their 
own  land. 

To  complete  their  misery  and  degradation,  William  and  the  succeeding 
monarchs  robbed  them  of  all  their  commerce  and  manufactures,  by  forbid- 
ding them  to  trade  with  other  countries.     Their  acitivity  in  this  direction 
interfered  with  the  profits  of  English  producers  and  merchants.      By  these 
The  Cause  of       merciless    and    cruel    methods    the    Irish  were   reduced   to   a 
Irish  Hatred      nation   of  tenants,   laborers  and  beggars,  and  such   they  still 
f  England        remain,  downtrodden,  oppressed,  their  most  lively  sentiment 
being    their   hatred    of   the    English,    to    whom    they  justly  impute    their 
degradation. 

The  time  came  when  England  acknowledged  with  shame  and  sorrow 
the  misery  to  which  she  had  reduced  a  sister  people — but  it  was  then  too 
late  to  retrieve  the  wrong.  English  landlords  owned  the  land,  manufac- 
turing industry  had  been  irretrievably  crowded  out,  the  evil  done  was  past 
mending. 

With  these  preliminary  statements  we  come  to  the  verge  of  the  nine- 
teenth century.  America  had  rebelled  against  England  and  gained 
independence.  This  fact  stirred  up  a  new  desire  for  liberty  in  the  Irish. 
The  island  had  always  possessed  a  legislature  of  its  own,  but  it  was  of  no 
value  to  the  natives.  It  represented  only  the  great  Protestant  land- 
owners, and  could  pass  no  act  without  the  consent  of  the  Privy  Council 
of  England. 


IRELAND  THE  DOWNTRODDEN  26r 

A   demand    for   a    national    Parliament   was    made,    and    the    English 
government,  having  its  experience  in  America  before  its  eyes,    Home  Ruje  and 
granted  it,  an  act    being  passed  in  1782  which  made  Ireland      the  Act  of 
independent  of  England   in  legislation,  a  system  such   as  is         m 
now  called  Home  Rule.      It  was  not  enough.      It  did  not  pacify  the  island. 
The  religious  animosity  between  the  Catholics  and  Protestants  continued, 
and  in  1798  violent  disturbances  broke  out,  with  massacres  on  both  sides, 

The  Irish  Parliament  was  a  Protestant  body,  and  at  first  was  elected 
solely  by  Protestant  votes.  Grattan,  the  eminent  Irish  statesman,  through 
whose  efforts  this  body  had  been  made  an  independent  legislature, — "  The 
King,  Lords,  and  Commons  of  Ireland,  to  make  laws  for  the  people  of  Ire- 
land,"— carried  an  act  to  permit  Catholics  to  vote  for  its  members.  He  then 
strove  for  a  measure  to  permit  Catholics  to  sit  as  members  in  the  Irish 
Parliament.  This  was  too  much  for  George  III.  He  recalled  Lord  Fitz- 
william,  the  viceroy  of  Ireland,  who  had  encouraged  and  assisted  Grattan 
and  blighted  the  hopes  of  the  Irish  Catholics. 

The  revolt  that  followed  was  the  work  of  a  society  called  the  United 
Irishmen,  organized  by  Protestants,  but  devoted  to  the  interests  of  Ireland, 
Wolfe  Tone,  one  of  its  leading  members,  went  to  France  and  induced  Napo- 
leon to  send  an  expedition  to  Ireland.  A  fleet  was  dispatched,  but  this,  like 
the  Spanish  Armada,  was  dispersed  by  a  storm,  and  the  few  The  unjted 
Frenchmen  who  landed  were  soon  captured.  The  rebellion  irishmen  and 
was  as  quickly  crushed,  and  was  followed  by  deeds  of  remorse-  Act  of  Union 
less  cruelty,  so  shameful  that  they  were  denounced  by  the  commander-in 
chief  himself.  With  this  revolt  the  independence  of  Ireland  ended.  An 
act  of  union  was  offered  and  carried  through  the  Irish  Parliament  by  a  very 
free  use  of  money  among  the  members,  and  the  Irish  Legislature  was  incor- 
porated with  the  British  one.  Since  January  I,  1801,  all  laws  for  Ireland 
have  been  made  in  London. 

Among  the  most  prominent  members  of  the  United  Irishmen  Society 
were  two  brothers  named  Emmet,  the  fate  of  one  of  whom  has  ever  since 
been  remembered  with  sympathy,  Thomas  A.  Emmet,  one  of  these 
brothers,  was  arrested  in  1798  as  a  member  of  this  society,  and  was  impris- 
oned until  1802,  when  he  was  released  on  condition  that  he  should  spend  the 
remainder  of  his  life  on  foreign  soil.  He  eventually  reached  New  York,  at 
whose  bar  he  attained  eminence.  The  fate  of  his  more  famous  brother, 
Robert  Emmet,  was  tragical.  This  young  man,  a  school-fellow  of  Thomas 
Moore,  the  poet,  was  expelled  from  Trinity  College  in  1798,  when  twenty 
years  of  age,  as  a  member  of  the  United  Irishmen.  He  went  to  the  conti- 


262  IRELAND  THE  DOWNTRODDEN 

nent,  interviewed  Napoleon  on  behalf  of  the  Irish  cause,  and  returned  in 
1802  with  a  wild  idea  of  freeing  Ireland  by  his  own  efforts  from  English 
rule. 

Organizing  a  plan  for  a  revolution,  and  expending  his  small  fortune  in 
the  purchase  of  muskets  and  pikes,  he  formed  a  plot  to  seize  Dublin  Castle, 
capture  the  viceroy,  and  dominate  the  capital.  At  the  head  of  a  small  body 
The  Fate  of  °^  followers  he  set  out  on  this  hopeless  errand,  which  ended 
Robert  Em-  at  the  first  volley  of  the  guards,  before  which  his  confederates 
hastily  dispersed.  Emmet,  who  had  dressed  himself  for  the 
occassion  in  a  green  coat,  white  breeches  and  cocked  hat,  was  deeply  morti- 
fied at  the  complete  failure  of  his  scheme.  He  fled  to  the  Wicklow  moun- 
tains, whence,  perceiving  that  success  in  his  plans  was  impossible,  he 
resolved  to  escape  to  the  continent.  But  love  led  him  to  death.  He  was 
deeply  attached  to  the  daughter  of  Curran,  the  celebrated  orator,  and,  in 
despite  of  the  advice  of  his  friends,  would  not  consent  to  leave  Ireland  until 
he  had  seen  her.  The  attempt  was  a  fatal  one.  On  his  return  from  the 
interview  with  his  lady-love  he  was  arrested  and  imprisoned  on  a  charge  of 
high  treason.  He  was  condemned  to  death  September  19,  1803,  and 
was  hanged  the  next  day. 

Before  receiving  sentence  he  made  an  address  to  the  court  of  such 
noble  and  pathetic  eloquence  that  it  still  thrills  the  reader  with  sympathetic 
emotion.  It  is  frequently  reprinted  among  examples  of  soul-stirring  oratory. 
The  disconsolate  woman,  Sarah  Curran,  perished  of  a  broken  heart  after  his 
untimely  death.  This  event  is  the  theme  of  one  of  Moore's  finest  poems  : 
"  She  is  far  from  the  land  where  her  young  hero  lies." 

The  death  of  Emmet  and  the  dispersal  of  the  United  Irishmen  by  no 
means  ended  the  troubles  in  Ireland,  but  rather  added  to  their  force.  Ire- 
land and  England,  unlike  in  the  character  and  religion  of  their  people  and 
in  their  institutions,  continued  in  a  state  of  hostility,  masked  or  active,  the 
Landlords,  Ten-  °^  feuds  being  kept  alive  on  the  one  side  by  the  landlords, 
ants  and  on  the  other  by  the  peasantry  and  the  clergy.  The  country 

was  divided  into  a  great  number  of  small  farms,  thousands  of 
them  being  less  than  five  acres  each  in  size.  For  these  the  landlords — 
many  of  whom  the  tenants  never  saw  and  some  of  whom  had  never  seen 
Ireland — often  exacted  extravagant  rents.  Again,  while  the  great  majority 
of  the  people  was  Catholic,  the  Catholic  clergy  had  to  be  supported  by 
the  voluntary  contributions  of  the  poverty-stricken  people,  while  tithes,  or 
church  taxes,  were  exacted  by  law  for  the  payment  of  clergymen  of  the 
English  Church,  who  remained  almost  without  congregations.  Finally, 
the  Catholics  were  disfranchised.  After  the  abolishment  of  the  Irish 


IRELAND  THE  DOWNTRODDEN  263 

Parliament  they  were  without  representation  in  the  government  under 
which  they  lived.  No  Catholic  could  be  a  member  of  Parliament.  It  is  not 
surprising  that  their  protest  was  vigorous,  and  that  the  British  government 
had  many  rebellious  outbreaks  to  put  down. 

It  was  the  disfranchisement  of  the  Catholics  that  first  roused  opposition. 
Grattan  brought  up  a  bill  for  "Catholic  Emancipation" — that    o'Connelland 
is,  the  admission  of  Catholics  to  the  British  Parliament  and  the      Catholic 
repeal  of  certain  ancient,  and  oppressive  edicts — in  1813.    The      Emancipation 
bill  was  lost,  but  a  new  and  greater  advocate  of  Irish  rights  now  arose,  Daniel 
O'Connell,  the  "  Liberator,"  the  greatest  of  Irish  orators  and  patriots,  who 
for  many  years  was  to  champion  the  cause  of  downtrodden  Ireland. 

The  "counsellor" — a  favorite  title  of  O'Connell  among  his  Irish 
admirers — was  a  man  of  remarkable  powers,  noted  for  his  boisterous  Irish 
wit  and  good  humor,  his  fearlessness  and  skill  as  a  counsel,  his  constant  tact 
and  readiness  in  reply,  his  unrivalled  skill  in  the  cross-examination  of  Irish 
witnesses,  and  the  violent  language  which  he  often  employed  in  court. 
This  man,  of  burly  figure,  giant  strength,  inexhaustible  energy  and  power 
of  work,  a  voice  mighty  enough  to  drown  the  noise  of  a  The" Counsel- 
crowd,  a  fine  command  of  telling  language,  coarse  but  effec-  lor  "and  His 
tive  humor,  ready  and  telling  retort,  and  master  of  all  the  Orat°ry 
artillery  of  vituperation,  was  just  the  man  to  control  the  Irish  people, 
passing  with  the  ease  of  a  master  from  bursts  of  passion  and  outbreaks  of 
buffoonery  to  passages  of  the  tenderest  pathos.  Thoroughly  Irish,  he 
seemed  made  by  nature  to  sustain  the  cause  of  Ireland. 

O'Connell  was  shrewd  enough  to^ deter  revolt,  and,  while  awakening  in 
the  Irish  the  spirit  of  nationality,  he  taught  them  to  keep  political  agita- 
tion within  constitutional  limits,  and  seek  by  legislative  means  what  they 
had  no  hope  of  gaining  by  force  of  arms.  His  legal  practice  was  enor- 
mous, yet  amid  it  he  found  time  for  convivial  relaxation  and  for  a  deep 
plunge  into  the  whirlpool  of  politics. 

The  vigorous  advocate  was  not  long  in  rising  to  the  chiefship  of  the 
Irish  party,  but  his  effective  work  in  favor  of  Catholic  emancipation  began 
in  1823,  when  he  founded  the  "Irish  Association,"  a  gigantic  system  of 
organization  which  Ireland  had  nothing  similar  to  before.  The 
clergy  -were  disinclined  to  take  part  in  this  movement,  but 
O'Connell's  eloquence  brought  them  in  before  the  end  of  the 
year,  and  under  their  influence  it  became  national,  spreading  irresistibly 
throughout  the  land  and  rousing  everywhere  the  greatest  enthusiasm.  To 
obtain  funds  for  its  support  the  "Catholic  Rent"  was  established — one 
penny  a  month — which  yielded  as  much  as  ^500  per  week. 


264  IRELAND  THE  DOWNTRODDEN 

In  alarm  at  the  growth  of  this  association,  the  government  brought  in  a 
bill  for  its  suppression,  but  O'Connell,  too  shrewd  to  come  into  conflict  with 
the  authorities,  forstalled  them  by  dissolving  it  in  1825.  He  had  set  the 
ball  rolling.  The  Irish  forty-shilling  freeholders  gained  courage  to  oppose 
their  landlords  in  the  elections.  In  1826  they  carried  Waterford.  In  1828 
O'Connell  himself  stood  as  member  of  parliament  for  Clare,  and  was 
elected  amid  the  intense  enthusiasm  of  the  people. 

This  triumph  set  the  whole  country  in  a  flame.  The  lord-lieutenant 
looked  for  an  insurrection,  and  even  Lord  Wellington,  prime  minister  of 
England,  was  alarmed  at  the  threatening  outlook.  But  O'Connell,  knowing 
that  an  outbreak  would  be  ruinous  to  the  Catholic  cause,  used  his  marvelous 
powers  to  still  the  agitation  and  to  induce  the  people  to  wait  for  parliamen- 
tary relief. 

This  relief  came  the  following  year.  A  bill  was  passed  which  admitted 
Catholics  to  parliament,  and  under  it  O'Connell  made  his  appearance  in  the 
House  of  Commons  May  15,  1829.  He  declined  to  take  the  old  oaths, 
which  had  been  repealed  by  the  bill.  The  House  refused  to 
Parliament  admit  him  on  these  conditions,  and  he  went  down  to  Clare 
again,  which  sent  him  back  like  a  conqueror.  At  the  begin- 
ning of  1830  he  took  his  seat  unopposed. 

O'Connell's  career  in  parliament  was  one  of  persistent  labor  for  the 
repeal  of  the  "Act  of  Union"  with  Great  Britain,  and  Home  Rule  for 
Ireland,  in  the  advocacy  of  which  he  kept  the  country  stirred  up  for  years. 
The  abolition  of  tithes  for  the  support  of  the  Anglican  clergy  was  another 
of  his  great  subjects  of  agitation,  and  this  one  member  had  the  strength  of 
a  host  as  an  advocate  of  justice  and  freedom  for  his  country. 

The  agitation  on  the  Catholic  question  had  quickened  the  sense  of 
the  wrongs  of  Ireland,  and  the  Catholics  were  soon  engaged  in  a  crusade 
against  tithes  and  the  established  Church,  which  formed  the  most  offensive 
symbols  of  their  inferior  position  in  the  state.  In  1830  the  potato  crop  in 
Ireland  was  very  poor,  and  wide-spread  misery  and  destitution  prevailed. 
O'Connell  advised  the  people  to  pay  no  tithes,  but  in  this  matter  they  passed 
beyond  his  control,  and  for  months  crime  ran  rampant.  The 
farmers  refused  to  pay  tithes  or  rents,  armed  bands  marched 
through  the  island,  and  murder  and  incendiarism  visited  the 
homes  of  the  rich.  A  stringent  coercion  bill  was  enacted  and  the  troubles 
were  put  down  by  the  strong  hand  of  the  law.  Subsequently  the  Whig  party, 
then  in  power,  practically  abolished  tithes,  cutting  down  the  revenue  of  the 
Established  Church,  and  using  the  remainder  for  secular  purposes,  and  the 
agitation  subsided. 


IRELAND  THE  DOWNTRODDEN  265 

In  1832  O'Connell  became  member  for  Dublin,  and  nominated  most  of 
the  Irish  candidates,  with  such  effect  that  he  had  in  the  next  Parliament  a 
following  of  forty-five  members,  known  sarcastically  as  his  "tail."  He 
gradually  attained  a  position  of  great  eminence  in  the  House  of  Commons, 
standing  in  the  first  rank  of  parliamentary  orators  as  a  debater. 

When  a  Tory  ministry  came  into  power,. in   1841,  O'Connell  began  a 
vigorous   agitation  in  favor  of   repeal  of  the  Act  of  Union  and  of    Home 
Rule  for  Ireland,  advocating  the  measure  with  all  his  wonder- 
ful power  of  oratory.      In  1843  he  travelled  5,000  miles  through       crusade 
Ireland,   speaking     to    immense  meetings,   attended    by  hun- 
dreds of  thousands  of  people,  and  extending  to  every  corner  of  the  island. 
But    thanks  to  his   great  controlling    power,    and  the  influence  of  Father 
Mathew,    the   famous    temperance    advocate,   these    audiences   were    never 
unruly  mobs,  but  remained  free  from  crime  and  drunkenness.     The  greatest 
was  that  held  on  the  Hill  of  Tara,  at  which,  according  to  the  Nation,  three- 
quarters  of  a  million  persons  were  present. 

O'Connell  wisely  deprecated  rebellion  and  bloodshed.  "  He  who  com- 
mits a  crime  adds  strength  to  the  enemy,"  was  his  favorite  motto.  Through 
a  whole  generation,  with  wonderful  skill,  he  kept  the  public  mind  at  the 
highest  pitch  of  political  excitement,  yet  restrained  it  from  violence.  But 
with  all  his  power  the  old  chief  began  to  lose  control  of  the  enthuisastic 
Young  Ireland  party  and,  confident  that  the  government  must  soon  yield  to 
the  impassioned  appeal  from  a  whole  nation,  he  allowed  himself  in  his 
speeches  to  outrun  his  sober  judgment. 

Fearful  of  an  outbreak  of  violence,  the  government  determined  to  put 
an  end  to  these  enormous  meetings,  and  a  force  of  35,000  men  was  sent  to 
Ireland.  A  great  meeting  had  been  called  for  Clantarf  on  October  5,  1843, 
but  it  was  forbidden  the  day  before  by  the  authorities,  and  O'Connell, 
fearing  bloodshed,  abandoned  it.  He  was  arrested,  however,  tried  for  a  con- 
spiracy to  arouse  sedition,  and  sentenced  to  a  year's  imprison- 

i  r  r       r  r,    •  •  i         ,  O'Connell 

ment  and  a  nne  ot  ,£2,000.      1  his  sentence  was  set  aside  by      imprisoned 
the  House  of   Lords   some  months  afterward   as    erroneous, 
and  at  once  bonfires  blazed  across  Ireland  from  sea  to  sea.     But  the  three 
months   he  passed  in   prison    proved    fatal   to   the   old   chief,   then    nearly 
seventy  years  old.      He  contracted  a  disease  which  Carried  him  to  the  grave 
three  years  afterwards. 

During  his  withdrawal  the  Young  Ireland  party  began  to  advocate 
resistance  to  the  government.  In  1846  and  1847  came  the  potato  famine, 
the  most  severe  visitation  Ireland  had  known  during  the  century,  and  in 
1848  the  revolutionary  movement  in  Europe  made  itself  felt  on  Irish  soil. 


265  IRELAND  THE  DOWNTRODDEN 

In  the  latter  year  the  ardent  Young  Ireland  party  carried  the  country  into 

rebellion  ;  but  the  outbreak  \vas  easily  put  down,  hardly  a  drop  of  blood  be- 

The  Young  'mS    shed    in    its    suppression.       The    popular    leader,    Smith 

Ireland  O'Brien,    was    banished    to     Australia,    but     was    eventually 

pardoned.    John  Mitchell,  editor  of  the  Nation  and  the  United 

Irishman,  was  also  banished,  but   subsequently  escaped  from   Australia  to 

the  United  States. 

The  wrongs  of  Ireland  remained  unredeemed,  and  as  long  as  this 
was  the  case  quiet  could  not  be  looked  for  in  the  island.  In  1858  a  Phoenix 
conspiracy  was  discovered  and  suppressed.  Meanwhile  John  O'.Mahony, 
one  of  the  insurgents  of  1848,  organized  a  formidable  secret  society  among 
the  Irish  in  the  United  States,  which  he  named  the  Fenian  Brotherhood, 
after  Finn,  the  hero  of  Irish  legend.  This  organization  was  opposed  by  the 
Catholic  clergy,  but  grew  despite  their  opposition,  its  members  becoming 
numerous  and  its  funds  large. 

Its  leader  in  Ireland  was  James  Stephens,  and  its  organ  the  Irish  Peo- 
ple newspaper.  But  there  were  traitors  in  the  camp  and  in  1865  the  paper 

was  suppressed  and  the  leaders  were  arrested.  Stephens 
The  Fenian  f  .  .  .  r  .  .  .  .  . 

Brotherhood     escaped   from  prison  ten  days   after  his  arrest   and  made  his 

way  to  America.  Th-e  revolutionary  activity  of  this  associa- 
tion was  small.  There  were  some  minor  outbreaks  and  an  abortive  attempt 
to  seize  Chester  Castle,  and  in  September,  1867,  an  attack  was  made  on  a 
police  van  in  Manchester,  and  the  prisoners,  who  were  Fenians,  were 
rescued.  Soon  after  an  attempt  was  made  to  blow  down  Clerkenwell  Prison 
wall,  with  the  same  purpose  in  view. 

The  Fenians  in  the  United  States  organized  a  plot  in  1866  for  a  raid 
upon  Canada,  which  utterly  failed,  and  in  1871  the  government  of  this 
country  put  a  summary  end  to  a  similar  expedition.  With  this  the  active 
existence  of  the  Fenian  organization  ended,  unless  we  may  ascribe  to  it  the 
subsequent  attempts  to  blow  down  important  structures  in  London  with 
dynamite.  . 

These   movements,  while  ineffective   as  attempts  at   insurrection,   had 

their  influence  in  arousing  the  more  thoughtful  statesmen  of  England  to  the 

causes  for  discontent  and  need  of  reform  in  Ireland,  and   since   that   period 

the  Irish  question  has  been  the  most  prominent  one  in  Parliament.   Such  men 

Land  Holding      as  Mr.  Gladstone  and  Mr.   Bright  took  the  matter   in   hand, 

Reform  in         Gladstone  presenting  a  bill  for  the  final  abolition  of  Irish  tithes 

and  the  disestablishment   of  the   English   Church  in  Ireland. 

This  was  adopted   in  1868,  and  the  question  of  the  reform  of  land  holding 

was    next    taken    up,  a    series    of  measures    being   passed    to    improve   the 


IRELAND  THE  DOWNTRODDEN  267 

condition  of  the  Irish  tenant  farmer.  If  ejected,  he  was  to  be  compensated 
for  improvements  he  had  made,  and  a  Land  Commission  was  formed  with 
the  power  to  reduce  rents  where  this  seemed  necessary,  and  also  to  fix  the 
rent  for  a  term  of  years.  At  a  later  date  a  Land  Purchase  Commission  wa;s 
organized,  to  aid  tenants  in  buying  their  farms  from  the  landlords,  by  an 
advance  of  a  large  portion  of  the  purchase  money,  with  provision  for  grad- 
ually repayment. 

These  measures  did  not  put  an  end  to  the  agitation.      Numerous  ejec- 
tions from  farms  for  non-payment  of  rent   had  been   going  on,  and  a  fierce 
struggle  was  raging  between  the  peasants  and  the  agents   of  the   absentee 
landlords.     The  disturbance  was  great,  and   successive  Coercion  Acts  were 
passed.     The  peasants  were  supported  by  the  powerful  Land  League,  while 
the  old  question  of  Home  Rule  was  revived  again,  under  the  active  leader- 
ship  of  Charles  Stewart  Parnell,  who  headed  a  small   but  very  determined 
body  in  Parliament.      The  succeeding  legislation  for  Ireland,  engineered  by 
Mr.  Gladstone,  to    the   passage    in  the    House  of  Commons 
of    the     Home    Rule     Bill    of     1893,    nas    been    sufficiently      Agitation 
described  in  the  preceding  chapter,  and  need  not  be  repeated 
here.      It  will  suffice  to  say  in  conclusion,  that   the   demand  for  Home  Rule 
still  exists,  and  that,  in  spite  of  all  efforts  at  reform,  the  position  of  the  Irish 
peasant  is  far  from  being  satisfactory,  the  most  prolific  crop  in   that  long- 
oppressed  land  seemingly  being  one  of  beggary  and  &»mi  'li 


CHAPTER  XVII. 
England  and   Her  Indian  Empire. 

IN  1756,  in  the  town  of  Calcutta,  the  headquarters  of  the  British  in  India, 
there   occurred  a  terrible  disaster.     A  Bengalese  army  marched  upon 
and   captured   the  town,  taking"  prisoner  all  the  English  who   had  not 
escaped   to  their  ships.     The  whole  of  these  unfortunates,  146  in  number, 

were  thrust  into   the  "black  hole,"  a  small  room  about  eijjh- 

The  Black  Hole  f  .  ,  11-1  T  •    i          r 

of  Calcutta       teen  *eet  scluare»  Wlt;h   two   small  windows.      It  was  a  night  of 

tropical  heat.  The  air  of  the  crowded  and  unventilated  room 
soon  became  unfit  to  breathe.  The  victims  fought  each  other  fiercely  to 
reach  the  windows.  The  next  morning,  when  the  door  was  opened,  only 
twenty-three  of  them  remained  alive.  Such  is  the  famous  story  of  the 
"black  hole  of  Calcutta." 

In  the  following  year  (1757)  this  barbarism  was  avenged.     On  the  bat- 
tlefield of  Plassey  stood  an  army  of  about  1,000  British  and   2,100  Sepoys, 
with  nine  pieces  of  artillery.     Opposed  to  them  were  50,000  native  infantry 
Cliveandthe       anc^  i8,ooo  cavalry,  with  fifty  cannon.     The  disproportion  was 
Battle  of  enormous,   but  at  the   head  of  the   British  army  was  a  great 

Plassey  leader,  Robert  Clive,  who  had  come  out  to   India  as  a  humble 

clerk,  but  was  now  commander  of  an  army.  A  brief  conflict  ended  the 
affair.  The  unwieldy  native  army  fled.  Clive's  handful  of  men  stood  vic- 
torious on  the  most  famous  field  of  Indian  warfare. 

This  battle  is  taken  as  the  beginning  of  the  British  Empire  in  India.  It  is 
of  interest  to  remember  that  just  one  hundred  years  later,  in  1857,  that  em- 
pire reached  the  most  perilous  point  in  its  career,  in  the  outbreak  of  the  great 
Indian  mutiny.  Plassey  settled  one  question.  It  gave  India  to  the  English 
in  preference  to  the  French,  in  whose  interest  the  natives  were  fighting.  The 
empire  which  Clive  founded  was  organized  by  Warren  Hastings,  the  ablest 
but  the  most  unscrupulous  of  the  governors  of  India.  At  the  opening  of 
the  nineteenth  century  the  British  power  in  India  was  firmly  established. 

In   1798  the  Marquis  of  Wellesly — afterwards  known  as 

reeMiUndia*"   Lord  "Wellington — was  made  governor.      Ever  there  he  had 

his  future  great  antagonist  to  guard  against,  for  Napoleon  was 

at  that  time  in  Egypt,  and  was  thought  to  have  the    design  of  driving  the 

268 


ENGLAND  AND  HER  INDIAN  EMPIRE  269 

British  from  India  and  restoring  that  great  dominion  to  France.  Wellesley's 
career  in  India  was  a  brilliant  one.  He  overthrew  the  powerful  Mar- 
hatta  Confederacy,  gained  victory  after  victory  over  the  native  chiefs  and 
kings,  captured  the  great  Mogul  cities  of  Delhi  and  Agra,  and  spread  the 
power  of  the  British  arms  far  and  wide  through  the  peninsula. 

In  the  succeeding  years  war  after  war  took  place.  The  warlike  Mar- 
hattas  rebelled  and  were  again  put  down,  other  tribes  were  conquered,  and 
in  1824  the  city  of  Bhartpur  in  Central  India,  believed  by  the  natives  to  be 
impregnable,  was  taken  by  storm,  and  the  reputation  of  the  British  as  in- 
domitable fighters  was  greatly  enhanced.  Rapidly  the  British  power 
extended  until  nearly  the  whole  peninsula  was  subdued.  In  1837  the  con- 
querors of  India  began  to  interfere  in  the  affairs  of  Afghanistan,  and  a  Brit- 
ish garrison  was  placed  in  Cabul,  the  capital  of  that  country,  in  1839. 

Two  years  they  stayed  there,  and  then  came  to  them  one  of  the  great- 
est catastrophes  in  the  history  of  the  British  army.  Surrounded  by  hostile 
and  daring  Afghans,  the  situation  of  the  garrison  grew  so  perilous  that  it 
seemed  suicidal  to  remain  in  Cabul,  and  it  was  determined  to  evacuate  the 
city  and  retreat  to  India  through  the  difficult  passes  of  the  Himalayas.  In 
January,  1842,  they  set  out,  4,000  fighting  men  and  12,000  camp  followers. 
Deep  snows  covered  the  hills  and  all  around  them  swarmed  The  Terrible 
the  Alghans,  savage  and-  implacable,  bent  on  their  utter  de-  Retreat 
struction,  attacking  them  from  every  point  of  vantage,  cutting 
down  women  and  children  with  the  same  ruthless  cruelty  as  they  displayed 
in  the  case  of  men.  One  terrible  week  passed,  then,  on  the  afternoon  of 
January  I3th,  the  sentinels  at  the  Cabul  gate  of  Jelalabad  saw  approaching 
a  miserable,  haggard  man,  barely  able  to  sit  upon  his  horse.  Utterly  ex- 
hausted, covered  with  cuts  and  contusions,  he  rode  through  the  gate,  and 
announced  himself  as  Dr.  Brydan,  the  sole  survivor  of  the  army  which  had 
left  Cabul  one  week  before.  The  remainder,  men,  women,  and  children, — 
except  a  few  who  had  been  taken  prisoners, — lay  slaughtered  along  that 
dreadful  road,  their  mangled  bodies  covering  almost  every  foot  of  its  blood- 
stained length. 

The  British  exacted  revenge  for  this  terrible  massacre.  A  powerful 
force  fought  its  way  back  to  Cabul,  defeated  the  Afghans  wherever  met,  and 
rescued  the  few  prisoners  in  the  Afghan  hands.  Then  the  soldiers  turned 
their  backs  on  Cabul,  which  no  Bristish  army  was  to  see  again  for  nearly 
forty  years. 

Three  years  afterwards  the  British  Empire  in  India  was  seriously  threat- 
ened by  one  of  the  most  warlike  races  in  the  peninsula,  the  Sikhs,  a  cour- 
ageous race  inhabiting  the  Punjab,  in  northern  India,  their  capital  the 


3  70  ENGLAND  AND  HER  INDIAN  EMPIRE 

city  of  Lahore.      In  1845  a  Sikh  army,  60,000  strong,  with  150  guns,  crossed 

the  Sutlei  River  and  invaded  British  territory.  Never  before 
The  War  With  .  ,  .  V.  .  .  ,  .  T  ,.  ,  ...  ,  ^ 

the  Sikhs          nac*   ^ne   Irtish   in  India  encountered  men  like  these,      rour 

pitched  battles  were  fought,  in  each  of  which  the  British  lost 
heavily,  but  in  the  last  they  drove  the  Sikhs  back  across  the  Sutlej  and  cap- 
tured Lahore. 

That  ended  the  war  for  the  time  being,  but  in  1848  the  brave  Sikhs 
were  in  arms  again,  and  pushing  the  British  as  hard  as  before.  On  the  field 
of  Chilianwala  the  British  were  repulsed,  with  a  loss  of  2,400  men  and  the 
colors  of  three  regiments.  This  defeat  was  quickly  retrieved.  Lord  Gough 
met  the  enemy  at  Guzerat  and  defeated  them  so  utterly  that  their  army  was 
practically  destroyed.  They  were  driven  back  as  a  shapeless  mass  of  fugi- 
tives, losing  their  camp,  their  standards,  and  fifty-three  of  their  cherished 
guns.  With  this  victory  was  completed  the  conquest  of  the  Punjab.  The 
Sikhs  became  loyal  subjects  of  the  queen,  and  afterwards  supplied  her  armies 
with  the  most  valorous  and  high-spirited  of  her  native  troops. 

Thus  time  went  on  until  that  eventful  year  of  1857,  when  the  Bnitish 
power  in  India  was  to  receive  its  most  perilous  shock.  For  a  long  time 
there  had  been  a  great  and  continually  increasing  discontent  in  India. 
Complaints  were  made  that  the  treaties  with  native  princes  were  not  kept, 
that  extortion  was  practised  by  which  officials  grew  rapidly  and  mysteriously 
wealthy,  looking  upon  India  as  a  field  for  the  acquisition  of  riches,  and  that 
the  natives  were  treated  by  the  governing  powers  with  deep  contempt, 

while  every  license  was  granted  to  the  soldiery.  The  hidden 
The  Causes  of  ....  1-111  1  r  i  1 

the  Mutiny       cause  of  the  discontent,  however,  lay  in  the  deep  hatred  felt  by 

the  natives,  Hindu  and  Mussulmen  alike,  for  the  dominant 
race  of  aliens  to.  whom  they  had  been  obliged  to  bow  in  common  subjection  ; 
and  the  fanaticism  of  the  Hindus  caused  the  smouldering  elements  of  discon- 
tent to  burst  out  into  the  flames  of  insurrection.  A  secret  conspiracy  was 
formed,  in  which  all  classes  of  the  natives  participated,  its  object  being 
to  overthrow  the  dominion  of  the  English.  It  had  been  prophesied  among 
the  natives  that  the  rule  of  the  foreign  masters  of  India  should  last  only  foi 
a  hundred  years  ;  and  a  century  had  just  elapsed  since  the  triumph  of  Clive. 
at  Plassey. 

Small  chupatties,  cakes  of  unleavened  bread,  were  secretly  passed  from 
hand  to  hand  among  the   natives,  as   tokens   of  comradeship  in  the  enter- 
prise.     This  conspiracy  was  the  more  dangerous  from  making 
The  Greased  .  r        T      T 

Cartridges         lts  waY  into  tne   army,  for  India  was  a  country  governed    by 

the  sword.  A  rumor  ran  through  the  cantonments  of  the 
Bengal  army  that  cartridges  had  been  served  out  greased  with  the  fat  of 


ENGLAND  AND  HER  INDIAN  EMPIRE  27I 

animals  unclean  to  Hindu  and  Mussulman  alike,  and  which  the  Hindus  could 
not  bite  without  loss  of  caste,  the  injunction  of  their  religion  obliging 
them  to  abstain  from  animal  food  under  this  penalty.  After  this  nothing 
could  quiet  their  minds  ;  fires  broke  out  nightly  in  their  quarters  ;  officers 
were  insulted  by  their  men  ;  all  confidence  was  gone,  and  discipline  became 
an  empty  form. 

The  sentence  of  penal  servitude  passed  upon  some  of  the  mutineers 
became  the  signal  for  the  breaking  out  of  the  revolt.  At  Meerut,  on  the 
Upper  Ganges,  the  Sepoys  broke  into  rebellion,  liberated  their  comrades 
who  were  being  led  away  in  chains,  and  marched  in  a  body  to  Delhi,  the 

ancient  capital  of  India  and  former  seat  of  the  Mo^ul  empire. 

,  ,  •  r     i  -T  -i     The  Old  Em- 

Here  they  took  possession  ot  the  great  military  magazine  and       peror  Akbar 

seized  its  stores.  Those  among  the  British  inhabitants  who 
did  not  save  themselves  by  immediate  flight  were  barbarously  put  to  death  ; 
and  the  decrepit  Akbar,  the  descendant  of  the  Moguls,  an  old  man  of  ninety, 
who  lived  at  Delhi  upon  a  pension  granted  to  him  by  the  East  India  Company, 
was  drawn  from  his  retirement  and  proclaimed  Emperor  of  Hindostan  by 
the  rebels,  his  son,  Mirza,  beingf  associated  with  him  in  the  government. 

The  mutiny  spread  with  terrible  rapidity,  and  massacres  of  the  English 
took  place  at  Indore,  Allahabad,  Azimghur,  and  other  towns.      Foremost  in 
atrocity  stands  the  massacre  perpetrated  at  Cawnpore  by  Nana  Sahib,  the 
adopted  son  of  the  last  Peishwa  of  the  Marhattas,  who,  after    The  Frightful 
entering  into  a  compact  with  General  Wheeler,  by  which  he       Massacre  at 
promised  a  free  departure  to  the  English,  caused  the  boats  in       Cawnpore 
which  they  were  proceeding  down  the  river  to  be  fired  upon.     The  men  were 
thus  slain,  while  the  women  and  children  were  brought  back  as  prisoners  to 
Cawnpore.      Here    they  were    confined    for  some   days    in  a  building,   into 
which  murderers  were  sent  who    massacred    them   every  one,  the  mutilated 
corpses  being  thrown  down  a  well. 

In   Oude,   the   noble-minded    Sir    Henry   Lawrence    defended    himself 
throughout  the  whole  summer  in  the  citadel  of   Lucknow  against  the  rebels 
under  Nana  Sahib  with  wonderful  skill  and  bravery,  until  he  was  killed  by 
the  bursting  of  a  bomb,  on  the  2d  of  July.      The  distress  of  the  besieged, 
among  whom  were  many  ladies  and  children,  was  now  extreme.     But  the  little 
garrison  held  out  for  nearly  three  months  longer  against   the  greatest  odds 
and  amid  the  most  distressing  hardships.    At  length  came  that   The  Scotch 
eventful  day,  when,  to  the  keen  ears  of  one  of  the  despairing       Slogan  at 
sufferers,  a  Scotch  woman,  came  from  afar  a  familiar  and  most         ucknow 
hopeful  sound.    "  Dinna  ye  hear  the  pibroch  ?"  she  cried,  springing  to  her  feet 
in  the  ecstacy  of  "hope  renewed. 


272  ENGLAND  AND  HER  INDIAN  EMPIRE 

Those  near  her  listened  but  heard  no  sound,  and  many  minutes  passed 
before  a  swell  of  wind  bore  to  their  ears  the  welcome  music  of  the  bagpipe, 
playing  the  war-march  of  the  Highlanders  of  her  native  land.  It  came 
from  the  party  of  relief  led  by  General  Havelock,  which  had  left  Calcutta 
on  the  first  tidings  of  the  outbreak,  and  was  now  marching  in  all  haste  to 
imperilled  Lucknow. 

On  his  way  Havelock  had  encountered  the  mutineers  at  Futtipur  and 
gained  a  brilliant  victory.  Three  days  later  Cawnpore  was  reached.  There 
the  insurgent  Sepoys  fought  with  desperation,  but  they  were  defeated,  and 
the  British  entered  the  town,  but  not  in  time  to  rescue  the  women  and  chil- 
dren, whose  slaughter  had  just  taken  place.  What  they  saw 
Havelock  there  filled  the  soldiers  with  the  deepest  sentiments  of  horror 
and  vengeance.  The  sight  was  one  to  make  the  blood  run 
cold.  "The  ground,"  says  a  witness  of  the  terrible  scene,  "was  strewn 
with  clotted  blood,  which  here  and  there  lay  ankle  deep.  Long  locks  of 
hair  were  scattered  about,  shreds  of  women's  garments,  children's  hats  and 
shoes,  torn  books  and  broken  playthings.  The  bodies  were  naked,  the 
limbs  dismembered.  I  have  seen  death  in  all  possible  forms,  but  I  could 
not  gaze  on  this  terrible  scene  of  blood." 

The  frightful  slaughter  was  mercilessly  avenged  by  the  infuriated 
soldiers  on  the  people  of  Cawnpore  and  on  the  prisoners  they  had  taken. 
Havelock  then  crossed  the  Ganges  and  marched  into  Oude.  Fighting  its 
way  through  the  difficulties  caused  by  inclement  weather  and  the  continual 
onslaughts  of  the  enemy,  Havelock's  regiment  at  last  effected  a  coalition 
with  the  reinforcements  under  General  Outram,  and  together  they  marched 
towards  Lucknow,  which  was  reached  at  the  end  of  September. 

An  especial  act  of  heroism  was  achieved  during  the  siege  of  Lucknow 
by  Mr.  Kavanagh,  an  official,  who  offered,  disguised  as  a  native,  to  pene- 
trate through  a  region  swarming  with  enemies,  to  communicate  with  the 
general  of  the  approaching  relieving  force.  He  happily  accomplished  his 
dangerous  exploit,  from  which  he  obtained  the  honorable  nickname  of 
"  Lucknow  Kavanagh." 

As  the  army  of  relief  drew  near,  the  beleaguered  people  heard  with  ears 

of  delight  the  increasing  sounds  of  their  approach,  the  roar  of  distant  guns 

reaching  their  gladdened  ears.     Yet  the  enterprise  was  a  desperate  one  and 

its  success  was  far  from  assured.      Havelock  and  Outram  had 

Ludknow°f        no  more  t^ian  2>6oo  men,  while  the   enemy  was  50,000  strong. 

Yet  as  the  sound  of  the  guns  increased  there  were   evidences 

of  panic  among  the  natives.      Many  of  the   town  people  and  of  the  Sepoys 

took  to  flight,  some  crossing  the  river  by  the  bridge,  some  by  swimming. 


ENGLAND  AND  HER  INDIAN  EMPIRE  273 

At  two  o'clock  the  smoke  of  the  guns  was  visible  in  the  suburbs  and  the 
rattle  of  musketry  could  be  heard.  At  five  o'clock  heavy  firing  broke  out 
in  the  streets,  and  in  a  few  minutes  more  a  force  of  Highlanders  and  Sikhs 
turned  into  the  street  leading  to  the  residency,  in  which  the  besieged  garrison 
had  so  long  been  confined.  Headed  by  General  Outram,  they  ran  at  a 
rapid  pace  to  the  gate,  and,  amid  wild  cheers  from  those  within,  made  their 
way  into  the  beleaguered  enclosure,  and  the  first  siege  of  Lucknow  was 
at  an  end. 

The  garrison  had  fought  for  months  behind  slight  defences  and  against 
enormous  odds.  They  were  well  supplied  with  food  and  water,  but  they 
had  been  exposed  to  terrible  heat  and  heavy  and  incessant  rains.  The 
Sepoys  had  been  drilled  by  British  officers,  were  well  supplied 
with  arms  and  ammunition,  and  from  the  housetops  of  the 
town  kept  up  an  incessant  fire  that  searched  every  corner  of 
the  defended  fortress.  Sickness  raged  in  the  crowded  and  underground 
rooms  in  which  shelter  was  sought  against  the  constant  musketry,  and 
death  had  reaped  a  harvest  among  the  gallant  and  unyielding  few  who  had 
so  long  held  that  almost  untenable  post. 

Havelock's  men  were  able  to  do  no  more  than  reinforce  the  gar- 
rison. After  fighting  their  way  with  heavy  losses  into  the  citadel,  they 
found  that  it  was  impossible,  with  their  small  army,  to  force  a  retreat 
through  the  ranks  of  the  enemy  with  the  women,  children  and  invalids, 
surrounded  by  the  swarms  of  rebels  who  surged  round  the  walls  like  a 
foaming  sea.  They  were  compelled,  therefore,  to  shut  themselves  up,  and 
await  fresh  reinforcements.  Provisions,  however,  now  began  to  diminish, 
and  they  were  menaced  with  the  horrors  of  starvation  ;  but 
matters  did  not  reach  this  last  extremity.  Sir  Colin  Camp- 
bell,  the  new  commander-in-chief,  with  7,000  well-equipped 
troops,  was  already  on  the  way.  He  arrived  at  Lucknow  on  the  I4th  of 
November,  made  a  bold  and  successful  attack  on  the  fortifications,  and 
liberated  the  besieged.  Unable  to  hold  the  town,  he  left  it  to  the  enemy, 
being  obliged  to  content  himself  with  the  rescue  of  the  people  in  the  resi- 
dency. Eight  days  afterwards  Havelock  died  of  cholera.  His  memory  is 
held  in  high  esteem  as  the  most  heoric  figure  in  the  war  of  the  mutiny. 

Meanwhile  Delhi  was  under  siege,  which  began  on  June  8th,  just  one 
month  after  the  original  outbreak.  It  was,  however,  not  properly  a  siege, 
for  the  British  were  encamped  on  a  ridge  at  some  distance 
from  the  city.  They  never  numbered  more  than  8,000  men, 
while  within  the  walls  were  over  30,000  of  the  mutineers. 
General  Nicholson  arrived  with  a  reinforcement  in  middle  August,  and  on 


274  ENGLAND  AND  HER  INDIAN  EMPIRE 

September  I4th  an  assault  was  made.  The  city  was  held  with  desperation 
by  the  rebels,  fighting  going  on  in  the  streets  for  six  days  before  the  Sepoys 
fled.  Nicholson  fell  at  the  head  of  a  storming  party,  and  Hodson,  the  leader 
of  a  corps  of  irregular  horse,  took  the  ol'd  Mogul  emperor  prisoner,  and 
shot  down  his  sons  in  cold  blood. 

It  was  not  until  three  months  and  a  half  after  the  release  of  the  garri- 
son at  Lucknow  that  Sir  Colin  Campbell,  having  dealt  out  punishment  to 
the  mutineers  at  many  of  the  stations  where  they  still  kept  together,  and 
having  received  large  reinforcements  of  men  and  artillery  from  home,  pre- 
pared for  the  crowning  attack  upon  that  place.  On  the  4th  of  February  he 
advanced  from  Cawnpore,  with  three  divisions  of  infantry,  a  division  of  cav- 
alry, and  fifteen  batteries,  and  on  the  ist  of  March  operations  began  ;  Gen 
eral  Outram,  with  a  force  of  6,000  men  and  thirty  guns,  crossing  the  Goom- 
tee,  and  reconnoitering  the  country  as  far  as  Chinhut.  On  the  following  day 
Final  Opera-  ne  invested  the  king's  race-house,  which  he  carried  the  next 
tions  Against  day  by  assault,  and  on  the  gth  Sir  Colin  Campbell's  main  force 
Lucknow  captured,  with  a  slight  loss,  the  Martiniere,  pushed  on  to  the 
bridges  across  the  river,  and  carried,  after  some  hard  fighting,  the  Begum's 
palace.  Two  days  later  the  Immaumbarra,  which  had  been  converted  into 
a  formidable  stronghold  and  was  held  by  a  large  force,  was  breached  and 
stormed,  and  the  captors  followed  so  hotly  upon  the  rear  of  the  flying  foe 
that  they  entered  with  them  the  Kaiserbagh,  which  was  regarded  by  the 
rebels  as  their  strongest  fortress.  Its  garrison,  taken  wholly  by  surprise, 
made  but  a  slight  resistance.  The  loss  of  these  two  positions,  on  which  they 
had  greatly  relied,  completely  disheartened  the  enemy,  and  throughout  the 
night  a  stream  of  fugitives  poured  out  of  the  town. 

The  success  was  so  unexpected  that  the  arrangements  necessary  for 
cutting  off  the  retreat  of  the  enemy  had  not  been  completed,  and 
very  large  numbers  of  the  rebels  escaped,  to  give  infinite  trouble  later 
on.  Many  were  cut  down  by  the  cavalry  and  horse  artillery,  which  set  out 
the  next  morning  in  pursuit ;  but,  to  the  mortification  of  the  army,  a  con- 
The  storming  siderable  proportion  got  away.  The  next  day  a  number  of 
of  the  Fort-  palaces  and  houses  fell  into  the  hands  of  the  advancing  troops 
without  resistance,  and  by  midnight  the  whole  city  along  the 
river  bank  was  in  their  possession.  In  the  meantime  Jung  Bahadoor,  the  Brit- 
ish ally,  was  attacking  the  city  with  his  Goorkhas  from  the  south,  and  pushed 
forward  so  far  that  communications  were  opened  with  him  halfway 
across  the  city.  The  following  day  the  Goorkhas  made  a  further  advance, 
and,  fighting  with  great  gallantry,  won  the  suburbs  adjacent  to  the 
Charbach  bridge. 


ENGLAND  AND  HER  INDIAN  EMPIRE  275 

The  hard  fighting  was  now  over  ;  the  failure  to  defend  even  one  of  the 
fortresses  upon  which  for  months  they  had  bestowed  so  much  care,  com- 
pletely disheartened  the  mutineers  remaining  in  the  city.  Numbers  effected 
their  escape  ;  others  hid  themselves,  after  having  got  rid  of  their  arms  and 
uniforms  ;  some  parties  took  refuge  in  houses,  and  defended  themselves  des- 
perately to  the  end.  The  work  was  practically  accomplished  on  the  2  1st, 
and  Lucknow,  which  had  so  long  been  the  headquarters  of  the  insurrection, 
was  in  British  hands,  and  that  with  a  far  smaller  loss  than  could  have  been  ex- 
pected from  the  task  of  capturing  a  city  possessing  so  many  places  of 
strength,  and  held  by  some  20,000  desperate  men  fighting  with  ropes  round 
their  necks. 

The  city  taken,  the  troops  were  permitted  to  plunder  and  murder  to 
their  hearts'  content.  In  every  house  were  dead  or  dying,  and  the  corpses 
of  Sepoys  lay  piled  up  several  feet  in  height.  The  booty  which  the  soldiers 
carried  off  in  the  way  of  jewels  and  treasures  of  every  kind  was  enormous. 

The  widowed  queen  of  Oude  set  out  for  England,  to  proclaim 
i  ri  -111  •  r     i      ITT-  The  Booty  of 

the  innocence  of  her  son  "  in  the  dark  countries  of  the  West,        the 


and  to  preserve  to  her  house   the   shadow  of  an    independent 
monarchy.      She  never  saw  her  sunny  India  again,  however;  on   the   return 
journey  she  died  of  a  broken  heart.      Though   the  rebellion   gradually  lost 
force    and    cohesion    after    this   period,  the  vengeance  continued  for  a  year 
longer.      But  the  chief  rebel,  Nana  Sahib,  and  the   two   heroic  women,  the 
Begum    of  Oude    and  the    Ranee  of  Jansee,  escaped    to    Nepaul.      In  the 
course  of  the  year  1858,  peace  and  order  again  returned  to  the  Anglo-Indian 
Empire,  and  the   government  was  able  to  consider  means  of  reconciliation. 
By  a  proclamation  of  the  queen  all  rebels  who  were  not   directly  implicated 
in  the  murder  of  British  subjects,  and  would  return  to  their  duty  and  allegi- 
ance   by  January,  1859,  were    to    obtain  a  complete    amnesty.    The  East  India 
This  proclamation  also   announced  that  the   queen,  with  the       Company 
consent   of  Parliament,  had   determined  to  abolish  the    East       Abolished 
India  Company,  to  take  the  government  into  her  own  hands,  and  to  rule  India 
by  means  of  a  special  secretary  of  state  and  council.      The  Indian  Empire, 
both  within  and  without,  had  assumed  such  gigantic  proportions  that  it  could 
no  longer   be  properly  ruled   by  a  mercantile  company,  and  came  properly 
under  the  control  of  the  crown.      In  1876  Queen  Victoria  assumed,  by  act 
of  Parliament,  the  title  of  Empress  of  India.      The  most  re-  victoria  is  Made 
cent    important    event,  in    the   acquisition  of  territory  in   this       Empress  of 
part   of  the  world,  was  the   invasion  of  Burmah   in  1885,  and       lndla 
its   capture   after  a  short  and  decisive  campaign.      The   Indian   Empire  of 
Victoria  has  now  grown  enormous  in  extent,  its  borders  extending  to  the 


276  ENGLAND  AND  HER  INDIAN  EMPIRE 

Himalayas  on  the  north,  where  they  are  in  contact  with  the  boundaries  of 
the  great  imperial  dominion  which  Russia  has  acquired  in  Asia  Whether 
the  two  great  rivals  will  yet  come  into  conflict  on  this  border  is  a  question 
which  only  the  future  can  decide. 

India  possesses  a  population  only  surpassed  by  that  of  China  amounting 
at  the  census  of  1896  to  221,172,952.  This  excludes  the  native  and  partially 
independent  states,  the  population  of  which  numbers  66,050,479,  making  a 
total  for  the  whole  empire,  including  Burmah,  of  287,223,431.  Under  British 
control  the  country  has  been  greatly  developed,  and  abundantly  supplied 
with  means  of  internal  communication,  its  railroad  lines  covering  a  length 
of  about  27,000  miles,  and  its  telegraphs  of  over  45,000  miles,  while  the 
telephone  has  also  been  widely  introduced.  Its  commerce  amounts  in  round 
numbers  to  nearly  $500,000,000  annually. 

This  great  country  has  long  been  subject  to  devastating  disasters.  In 
1876  a  terrible  tidal  wave  drowned  thousands  of  the  people  and  destroyed 
millions  in  value  of  property.  In  1897  much  of  the  country  suffered  fright- 
fully from  famine,  being  the  fifteenth  occasion  during  the  century.  In  the 
same  year  a  plague  broke  out  in  the  crowded  city  of  Bombay  and  caused 
dreadful  ravages  among  its  native  population.  For  ages  past  India  has  been 
subject  to  visitations  of  this  kind,  which  have  hitherto  surpassed  the  power 
of  man  to  prevent.  In  the  last  named  all  the  world  came  to  the  aid  of  the 
starving  and  science  did  its  utmost  to  stay  the  ravages  of  the  plague. 


CHAPTER  XVIII. 

Thiers,  Gambetta,  and  the  Rise  of  the  French 

Republic. 

IT  has  been  already  told  how  the  capitulation  of  the  French  army  at  Sedan 
and   the  captivity  of  Louis   Napoleon  were   followed  in   Paris  by  the 
overthrow  of  the  empire  and  the  formation  of  a  republic,  the  third  in 
the    history  of  French    political    changes.     A  provisional    government  was 
formed,  the  legislative  assembly  was  dissolved,  and   all  the   court  parapher- 
nalia of  the   imperial  establishment   disappeared.     The    new 

„     ,  .     T,      .      ,  ~  ,  T  „    A  Provisional 

government  was  called  in  rans  the  "  Government  ot.  Lawyers,         Government 

most  of  its  members  and  officials  belonging  to  that  profession. 
At  its  head  was  General  Trochu,  in  command  of  the  army  in  Paris  ;  among 
its  chief  members  were  Jules  Favre  and  Gambetta.  While  upright  in  its 
membership  and  honorable  in  its  purposes,  it  was  an  arbitrary  body,  formed 
by  a  coup  d'etat  like  that  by  which  Napoleon  had  seized  the  reins  of  power, 
and  not  destined  for  a  long  existence. 

The   news  of  the  fall  of   Metz  and  the  surrender  of  Bazaine  and  his 
army  served  as  a  fresh  spark  to  the  inflammable  public  feeling  of  France. 
In  Paris  the  Red  Republic  raised   the  banner  of  insurrection   against  the 
government  of  the  national  defence  and  endeavored  to  revive  the  spirit  of 
the    Commune    of    1793.      The    insurgents    marched    to    the 
senate-house,   demanded  the  election  of  a  municipal  council      parjs 
which    should   share    power  with    the   government,   and  pro- 
ceeded   to    imprison    Trochu,    Jules    Favre,    and    their    associates.      This, 
however,  was  but  a  temporary  success  of  the  Commune,  and  the  provisional 
government  continued  in  existence  until  the  end  of  the  war,  when  a  nationa.' 
assembly  was  elected  by  the  people  and  the  temporary  government  was  set 
aside.     Gambetta,    the    dictator,    "  the  organizer    of    defeats,"   as    he    was 
sarcastically  entitled,  lost  his  power,  and  the  aged  statesman  and  historian, 
Louis  Thiers,  was  chosen  as  chief  of  the  executive  department  of  the  new 
government. 

The  treaty  of  peace  with  France,  including,  as  it  did,  the  loss  of  Alsace 
and  Lorraine  and  the  payment  of  an  indemnity  of  $1,000,000,000,  roused 
once  more  the  fierce  passions  of  the  radicals  and  the  masses  of  the  great 

277 


278  THE  RISE  OF  THE  FRENCH  REPUBLIC 

cities,  who  passionately  denounced  the  treaty  as  due  to  cowardice  and  treason. 
The  dethroned  emperor  added  to  the  excitement  by  a  manifesto,  in  which 
he  protested  against  his  deposition  by  the  assembly  and  called  for  a  fresh 
election.  The  final  incitement  to  insurrection  came  when  the  assembly 
decided  to  hold  its  sessions  at  Versailles  instead  of  in  Paris,  whose  unruly 
populace  it  feared. 

In  a  moment  all  the  revolutionary  elements  of  the  great  city  were  in  a 
blaze.  The  social  democratic  "  Commune,"  elected  from  the  central  com- 
mittee of  the  National  Guard,  renounced  obedience  to  the  government  and 

the  National  Assembly,  and  broke  into  open  revolt.  An 
Outbreak  of  the  .  ,,  ,  .  .  . 

Commune         attempt  to  repress  the  movement   only  added  to  its  violence, 

and  all  the  riotous  populace  of  Paris  sprang  to  arms.  A  new 
war  was  about  to  be  inaugurated  in  that  city  which  had  just  suffered  so 
severely  from  the  guns  of  the  Germans,  and  around  which  German  troops 
were  still  encamped. 

The  government  had  neglected  to  take  possession  of  the  cannon  on 
Montmartre  ;  and  now,  when  the  troops  of  the  line,  instead  of  firing  on  the 
insurrectionists,  went  over  in  crowds  to  their  side,  the  supremacy  over  Paris 
fell  into  the  hands  of  the  wildest  demagogues.  A  fearful  civil  war  com- 
menced, and  in  the  same  forts  which  the  Germans  had  shortly  before 
evacuated  firing  once  more  resounded  ;  the  houses,  gardens,  and  villages 
around  Paris  were  again  surrendered  to  destruction,  and  the  creations  of 
art,  industry,  and  civilization,  and  the  abodes  of  wealth  and  pleasure  were 
once  more  transformed  into  dreary  wildernesses. 

The  wild  outbreaks  of  fanaticism  on  the  part  of  the  Commune  recalled 
the  scenes  of  the  revolution  of  1789,  and  in  these  spring  days  of  1871  Paris 
added  another  leaf  to  its  long  history  of  crime  and  violence.  The  insur- 
gents, roused  to  fury  by  the  efforts  of  the  government  to  suppress  them, 
murdered  two  generals,  Lecomte  and  Thomas,  and  fired  on  the  unarmed 
citizens  who,  as  the  "friends  of  order,"  desired  a  reconcilia- 
"nsurgents  °  ti°n  w^^  ^e  authorities  at  Versailles.  They  formed  a  govern- 
ment of  their  own,  extorted  loans  from  wealthy  citizens, 
confiscated  the  property  of  religious  societies,  and  seized  and  held  as 
hostages  Archbishop  Darboy  and  many  other  distinguished  clergymen  and 
citizens. 

Meanwhile  the  investing  troops,  led  by  Marshal  MacMahon,  gradually 
fought  their  way  through  the  defences  and  into  the  suburbs  of  the  city,  and 
the  surrender  of  the  anarchists  in  the  capital  became  inevitable.  This 
necessity  excited  their  passions  to  the  most  violent  extent,  and,  with  the 
wild  fury  of  savages,  they  set  themselves  to  do  all  the  damage  to  the  historical 


THE  RISE  OF  THE  FRENCH  REPUBLIC  279 

monuments  of  Paris  they  could.  The  noble  Vendome  column,  the  symbol 
of  th^  warlike  renown  of  France,  was  torn  down  from  its  pedestal  and 
hurled  prostrate  in  the  street.  The  most  historic  buildings  in  the  city  were 
set  on  fire,  and  either  partially  or  entirely  destroyed.  Among  these  were 
the  Tuileries,  a  portion  of  the  Louvre,  the  Luxembourg,  the  Palais  Royal, 
the  Elysee,  etc.  ;  while  several  of  the  imprisoned  hostages,  foremost  among 
them  Darboy,  Archbishop  of  Paris,  and  the  universally  respected  minister 
Daguerry,  were  shot  by  the  infuriated  mob.  Such  crimes  excited  the  Ver 
sailles  troops  to  terrible  vengeance,  when  they  at  last  succeeded  in  repress- 
ing the  rebellion.  They  went  their  way  along  a  bloody  course  ;  human  life 
was  counted  as  nothing  ;  the  streets  were  stained  with  blood  and  strewn 
with  corpses,  and  the  Seine  once  more  ran  red  between  its  banks.  When 

at  last  the  Commune  surrendered,  the  judicial  courts  at  Ver- 

.,,        ,  ,  ,        r  -i        •  T-i       11  1  •      Punishment  of 

saules  began  their  work  oi  retribution.      1  he  leaders  and  parti-      theCommune 

cipators  in  the  rebellion  who  could  not  save  themselves  by 
flight  were  shot  by  hundreds,  confined  in  fortresses,  or  transported  to  the 
colonies.  For  more  than  a  year  the  imprisonments,  trials,  and  executions 
continued,  military  courts  being  established  which  excited  the  world  for 
months  by  their  wholesale  condemnations  to  exile  and  to  death.  The 
carnival  of  anarchy  was  followed  by  one  of  pitiless  revenge. 

The  Repulican  government  of  France,  which  had  been  accepted  in  an 
emergency,  was  far  from  carrying  with  it  the  support  of  the  whole  of  the 
assembly  or  of  the  people,  and  the  aged,  but  active  and  keen-witted  Thiers 
had  to  steer  through  a  medley  of  opposing  interests  and  sentiments.  His 
government  was  considered,  alike  by  the  Monarchists  and  the  Jacobins,  as 
only  provisional,  and  the  Bourbons  and  Napoleonists  on  the  one  hand  and 
the  advocates  of  "  liberty,  equality  and  fraternity  "  on  the  other,  intrigued 
for  its  overthrow.  But  the  German  armies  still  remained  on  French  soil, 
pending  the  payment  of  the  costs  of  the  war ;  and  the  astute  chief  of  the 
executive  power  possessed  moderation  enough  to  pacify  the  passions  of 
the  people,  to  restrain  their  hatred  of  the  Germans,  which  was  so  boldly 
exhibited  in  the  streets  and  in  the  courts  of  justice,  and  to  quiet  the  clamor 
for  a  war  of  revenge. 

The  position  of  parties  at  home  was  confused  and  distracted,  and  a 
disturbance  of  the  existing  order  could  only  lead  to  anarchy  and  civil  war. 
Thiers  was  thus  the  indispensable  man  of  the  moment,  and  so    president 
much  was  he  himself  impressed  by  consciousness  of  this  fact,      Thiers  and 
Vnat  he  many  times,  by  the  threat  of  resignation,  brought  the      the  Assembly 
opposing  elements    in   the    assembly   to    harmony   and    compliance.     This 
occurred  even  during  the  siege  of  Paris,  when  the  forces  of  the  government 


28o  THE  RISE  OF  THE  FRENCH  REPUBLIC 

were  in  conflict  with  the  Commune.  In  the  assembly  there  was  shown 
an  inclination  to  moderate  or  break  through  the  sharp  centralization  of  the 
government,  and  to  procure  some  autonomy  for  the  provinces  and  towns. 
When,  therefore,  a  new  scheme  was  discussed,  a  large  part  of  the  assembly 
demanded  that  the  mayors  should  not,  as  formerly,  be  appointed  by  the 
government,  but  be  elected  by  the  town  councils.  Only  with  difficulty  was 
Thiers  able  to  effect  a  compromise,  on  the  strength  of  which  the  government 
was  permitted  the  right  of  appointment  for  all  towns  numbering  over  twenty 
thousand.  In  the  elections  for  the  councils  the  Moderate  Republicans  proved 
triumphant.  With  a  supple  dexterity,  Thiers  knew  how  to  steer  between  the 
Democratic-Republican  party  and  the  Monarchists.  When  Gambetta  endea- 
vored to  establish  a  "  league  of  Republican  towns,"  the  attempt  was  forbidden 
as  illegal ;  and  when  the  decree  of  banishment  against  the  Bourbon  and  Orlean 
princes  was  set  aside,  and  the  latter  returned  to  France,  Thiers  knew  how  to 
postpone  the  entrance  of  the  Due  d'Aumaleand  Prince  de  Joinville,  who  had 
been  elected  deputies,  into  the  assembly,  at  least  until  the  end  of  the  year. 

The  brilliant  success  of  the  national  loan  went  far  to  strengthen  the 
position  of  Thiers.      The  high  offers  for  a  share  in  this  loan,  which  indi- 
cated the  inexhaustible  wealth  of  the  nation  and  the  solid  credit  of  France 
abroad,  promised  a  rapid  payment  of  the  war  indemnity,  the 
consequent  evacuation  of  the  country  by  the  German  army  of 
occupation,  and  a  restoration  of  the  disturbed  finances  of  the 
state.     The  foolish  manifesto  of    the  Count  de  Chambord,  who   declared 
that  he  had  only  to  return  with  the  white  banner  to  be  made  sovereign  of 
France,  brought  all  reasonable  and  practical  men  to  the  side  of  Thiers,  and 
he  had,  during  the  last  days  of  August,   1871,  the  triumph  of  being  pro- 
claimed "  President  of  the  French  Republic." 

The  new  president  aimed,  next  to  the  liberation  of  the  garrisoned 
provinces  from  the  German  troops  of  occupation,  at  the  reorganization  of 
the  French  .army.  Yet  he  could  not  bring  himself  to  the  decision  of  enforc- 
ing in  its  entirety  the  principle  of  general  armed  service,  such  as  had  raised 
Prussia  from'a  state  of  depression  to  one  of  military  regeneration.  Universal 
military  service  in  France  was,  it  is  true,  adopted  in  name,  and  the  army  was 
increased  to  an  immense  extent,  but  under  such  conditions  and  limitations 
that  the  richer  and  more  educated  classes  could  exempt  themselves  from 
service  in  the  army  ;  and  thus  the  active  forces,  as  before,  consisted  of  pro- 
fessional soldiers.  And  when  the  minister  for  education,  Jules  Simon, 
introduced  an  educational  law  based  on  liberal  principles,  he  experienced 
en  the  part  of  the  clergy  and  their  champion,  Bishop  Dupanloup,  such 
violent  opposition,  that  the  government  dropped  the  measure. 


DREYFUS,   HIS  ACCUSERS  AND  DEFENDERS 

lawyer  Labor! ;  Henry,  the  suicide  ;  Dreyfus,  the  prisoner  ;  psterhazy,  the  confessed  criminal ;  General  Mercier,  chief  ace 


THE    DREYFUS    TRIAL 

Dreyfus  in  the  act  ot  declaring  "  /  am  Innocent. 


THE  RISE  OF  THE  FRENCH  REPUBLIC  283 

In  order  to  place  the  army  in  the  condition  which  Thiers  desired,  an 
increase  in  the  military  budget  was  necessary,  and  consequently  an  en- 
hancement of  the  general  revenues  of  the  state.  For  this  purpose  a  return 
to  the  tariff  system,  which  had  been  abolished  under  the  empire,  was  pro- 
posed, but  excited  so  great  an  opposition  in  the  assembly 
that  six  months  passed  before  it  could  be  carried.  The  new  Reor£anizatlon 

,     ,  .  .  .  of  the  Army 

organization  of  the  army,  undertaken  with  a  view  of  placing 
France  on  a  level  in  military  strength  with  her  late  conqueror,  was  now 
eagerly  undertaken  by  the  president.  An  active  army,  with  five  years' 
service,  was  to  be  added  to  a  "territorial  army,"  a  kind  of  militia.  And  so 
great  was  the  demand  on  the  portion  of  the  nation  capable  of  bearing  arms 
that  the  new  French  army  exceeded  in  numbers  that  of  any  other  nation. 

But  all  the  statesmanship  of  Thiers  could  not  overcome  the  anarchy  in 
the  assembly,  where  the  forces  for  monarchy  and  republicanism  were  bit- 
terly opposed  to  each  other.  Gambetta,  in  order  to  rouse 

11-..  •        r  r    j  i  i  Gambetta  as 

public    opinion    m    favor  of  democracy,    made    several    tours 


through    the    country,   his    extravagance   of  language   giving 

deep  offence  to  the  monarchists,  while  the  opposed  sections  of  the  assembly 

grew  wider  and  more  violent  in  their  breach. 

Indisputably  as  were  the  valuable  services  which  Thiers  had  rendered  to 
France,  by  the  foundation  of  public  order  and  authority,  the  creation  of  a 
regular  army,  and  the  restoration  of  a  solid  financial  system,  yet  all  these 
services  met  with  no  recognition  in  the  face  of  the  party  jealousy  and  politi- 
cal passions  prevailing  among  the  people's  representatives  at  Versailles. 
More  and  more  did  the  Royalist  reaction  gain  ground,  and,  aided  by  the 
priests  and  by  national  hatred  and  prejudice,  endeavor  to  bring  about  the 
destruction  of  its  opponents.  Against  the  Radicals  and  Liberals,  among 
whom  even  the  Voltairean  Thiers  was  included,  superstition  and  fanaticism 
were  let  loose,  and  against  the  Bonapartists  was  directed  the  terrorism  of 
court  martial.  The  French  could  not  rest  with  the  thought  that  their  mili- 
tary supremacy  had  been  broken  by  the  superiority  of  the  Prusso-German 
arms  ;  their  defeats  could  have  proceeded  only  from  the  treachery  or  incapa- 
city of  their  leaders.  To  this  national  prejudice  the  Government  decided 
to  bow,  and  to  offer  a  sacrifice  to  the  popular  passion.  And  thus  the  world 
beheld  the  lamentable  spectacle  of  the  commanders  who  had  Tria,  and  Con_ 
surrendered  the  French  fortresses  to  the  enemy  being  sub-  demnation  of 
jected  to  a  trial  by  court-martial  under  the  presidency  of  Mar- 
shal Baraguay  d'Hilliers,  and  the  majority  of  them,  on  account  of  their 
proved  incapacity  or  weakness,  deprived  of  their  military  honors,  at  a  mo- 
ment when  all  had  cause  to  reproach  themselves  and  endeavor  to  raise  up  a 


284  THE  RISE  OF  THE  FRENCH  REPUBLIC 

new  structure  on  the  ruins  of  the  past.  Even  Ulrich,  the  once  celebrated 
commander  of  Strasburg,  whose  name  had  been  given  to  a  street  in 
Paris,  was  brought  under  the  censure  of  the  court-martial.  But  the  chief 
blow  fell  upon  the  commander-in-chief  of  Metz,  Marshal  Bazaine,  to  whose 
"  treachery  "  the  whole  misfortune  of  France  was  attributed.  For  months 
he  was  retained  a  prisoner  at  Versailles,  while  preparations  were  made  for 
the  great  court-martial  spectacle,  which,  in  the  following  year,  took  place 
under  the  presidency  of  the  Due  d'Aumale. 

The  result  of  the  party  division  in  the  assembly  was,  in  May,  1873,  a 
vote  of  censure  on  the  ministry  which  induced  them  to  resign.  Their  resig- 
nation was  followed  by  an  offer  of  resignation  on  the  part  of  Thiers,  who 
MacMahon  experienced  the  unexpected  slight  of  having  it  accepted  by 

Elected  the    majority  of    the    assembly,  the    monarchist    MacMahon, 

President  Marshal  of  France  and  Duke  of  Magenta,  being  elected 
President  in  his  place.  Theirs  had  just  performed  one  of  his  greatest  ser- 
vices to  France,  by  paying  off  the  last  installment  of  the  war  indemnity  and 
relieving  the  soil  of  his  country  of  the  hated  German  troops. 

The  party  now  in  power  at  once  began  to  lay  plans  to  carry  out  their 
cherished  purpose  of  placing  a  Legitimist  king  upon  the  throne,  this  honor 
being  offered  to  the  Count  de  Chambord,  grandson  of  Charles  X.  He,  an 
old  man,  unfitted  for  the  thorny  seat  offered  him,  and  out  of  all  accord  with 
TheCountde  ^  sp'ir'lt  °f  tne  times,  put  a  sudden  end  to  the  hopes  of  his 

Chambord         partisans  by  his  mediaeval  conservatism.    Their  purpose  was  to 

establish  a  constitutional  government,  under  the  tri-colored  flag 

of  revolutionary  France;  but  the  old  Bourbon  gave  them  to  under 

stand  that  he  would  not  consent  to  reign  under  the  Tricolor,  but  must  remain 

steadfast  to  the  white  banner  of  his  ancestors  ;  he  had  no  desire  to  be  "  the 

legitimate  king  of  revolution." 

This  letter  shattered  the  plans  of  his  supporters.  No  man  with  ideas 
like  these  would  be  tolerated  on  the  French  throne.  There  was  never  to  be 
in  France  a  King  Henry  V.  The  Monarchists,  in  disgust  at  the  failure  of 
their  schemes,  elected  MacMahon  president  of  the  republic  for  a  term  of 
seven  years,  and  for  the  time  being  the  reign  of  republicanism  in  France 
was  made  secure. 

While  MacMahon  was  thus  being  raised  to  the  pinnacle  of  honor,  his 
former  comrade  Bazaine  was  imprisoned  in  another  part  of  the  palace  at 
Trial  and  Sen-  Versailles,  awaiting  trial  on  the  charge  of  treason  for  the  sur- 

tenceof  render  of  Metz.     In  the  trial,  in  which  the  whole  world  took  a 

deep  interest,  the  efforts  of  the  prosecution  were  directed  to 

prove  that  the  conquest   of  France  was  solely  due  to  the  treachery  of  the 


THE  RISE  OF  THE  FRENCH  REPUBLIC  285 

Bonapartist  marshal.  Despite  all  that  could  be  said  in  his  defence,  he  was 
found  guilty  by  the  court-martial,  sentenced  to  degradation  from  his  rank  in 
the  army,  and  to  be  put  to  death. 

A  letter  which  Prince  Frederick  Charles  wrote  in  his  favor  only  added 
to  the  wrath  of  the  people,  who  cried  aloud  for  his  execution.  But,  as 
though  the  judges  themselves  felt  a  twinge  of  conscience  at  the  sentence, 
they  at  the  same  time  signed  a  petition  for  pardon  to  the  president  of  the 
republic.  MacMahon  thereupon  commuted  the  punishment  of  death  into  a 
twenty  years'  imprisonment,  remitted  the  disgrace  of  the  formalities  of  a 
military  degradation,  without  cancelling  its  operation,  and  appointed  as  the 
prisoner's  place  of  confinement  the  fortess  on  the  island  of  St.  Marguerite, 
opposite  Cannes,  known  in  connection  with  the  "iron  mask."  Bazaine's 
wealthy  Mexican  wife  obtained  permission  to  reside  near  him,  with  her  fam- 
ily and  servants,  in  a  pavilion  of  the  sea-fortress.  This  afforded  her  an  op- 
portunity of  bringing  about  the  freedom  of  her  husband  in  the  following 
year  with  the  aid  of  her  brother.  A_fter  an  adventurous  escape,  by  letting 
himself  down  with  a  rope  to  a  Genoese  vessel,  Bazaine  fled  to  Holland,  and 
then  offered  his  services  to  the  Republican  government  of  Spain. 

In    1875    tne    constitution  under  which   France   is   now  governed   was 
adopted  by  the  republicans.      It  provides  for  a  legislature  of  two  chambers ; 
one  a  chamber  of  deputies  elected  by  the  people,  the  other  a  senate  of  300 
members,  75  of  whom  are   elected  by  the  National  Assembly   The  New  Con= 
and   the  others  by  electoral  colleges  in   the    departments   of      stitution  of 
France.     The  two   chambers   unite  to  elect  a  president,  who 
has  a  term  of  seven  years.     He  is  commander-in-chief  of  the  army,  appoints 
all   officers,  receives   all    ambassadors,  executes  the  laws,  and  appoints  the 
cabinet,  which  is  responsible  to  the  Senate   and  House  of  Deputies, — thus 
resembling  the  cabinet  of  Great  Britain  instead  of  that  of  the  United  States. 

This  constitution  was   soon    ignored   by   the  arbitrary   president,    who 
forced  the  resignation  of  a  cabinet  which  he  could  not  control,  and  replaced 
it  by  another  responsible  to  himself  instead  of  to  the  assembly.      His  act 
of  autocracy  roused  a  violent  opposition.     Gambetta  moved  that  the  repre- 
sentatives of  the  people  had  no  confidence  in  a  cabinet  which  was  not  free 
in  its  actions  and  not  Republican  in  its  principles.     The  sudden  death  of 
Thiers,   whose    last  writing   was  a  defence 'of    the  republic,    MacMahon 
stirred  the  heart  of  the  nation  and  added  to  the  excitement,      Resigns  and 
which  soon  reached  fever  heat.      In  the  election  that  followed 
the  Republicans  were  in  so  great  a  majority  over  the   Conservatives   that 
the  president  was  compelled  either  to  resign  or  to  govern  according  to  the 
constitution.      He  accepted  the  latter  and   appointed  a  cabinet  composed 


286  THE  RISE  OF  THE  FRENCH  REPUBLIC 

of  Republicans.  But  the  acts  of  the  legislature,  which  passed  laws  to  pre- 
vent arbitrary  action  by  the  executive  and  to  secularize  education,  so 
exasperated  the  old  soldier  that  he  finally  resigned  from  his  high  office. 

Jules   Grevy  was   elected   president   in   his   place,  and   Gambetta  was 

made  president  of  the  House  of  Deputies.     Subsequently  he  was  chosen 

presiding  minister  in  a  cabinet  composed  wholly  of  his  own  creatures.      His 

Gambetta  as        career   in  this   high   office  was  a  brief  one.     The  Chambers 

Prime  flin=       refused   to   support    him    in    his   arbitrary  measures     and    he 

resigned  in  disgust.     Soon  after  the  self-appointed  dictator, 

who  had  played  so  prominent  a  part  in  the  war  with  Germany,  died  from  a 

wound  whose  origin  remained  a  mystery. 

The  constitution  was  revised  in  1884,  the  republic  now  declared  per- 
manent and  final,  and  Grevy  again  elected  president.  General  Boulanger, 
the  minister  of  war  in  the  new  government,  succeeded  in  making  himself  highly 
popular,  many  looking  upon  him  as  a  coming  Napoleon,  by  whose  genius 
the  republic  would  be  overthrown. 

In  1887  Grevy  resigned,  in  consequence  of  a  scandal  in  high  circles, 
and  was  succeeded  by  Sadi  Carnot,  grandson  of  a  famous  general  of  the 
first  republic.  Under  the  new  president  two  striking  events  took  place. 
General  Boulanger  managed  to  lift  himself  into  great  promi- 
nence>  ar"d  gain  a  powerful  following  in  France.  Carried 
away  by  self-esteem,  he  defied  his  superiors,  and  when  tried 
and  found  guilty  of  the  offence,  was  strong  enough  in  France  to  overthrow 
the  ministry,  to  gain  re-election  to  the  Chamber  of  Deputies,  and  to  defeat 
a  second  ministry. 

But  his  reputation  was  declining.  It  received  a  serious  blow  by  a  duel 
he  fought  with  a  lawyer,  in  which  the  soldier  was  wounded  and  the  lawyer 
escaped  unhurt.  The  next  cabinet  was  hostile  to  his  intrigues,  and  he  fled  to 
Brussels  to  escape  arrest.  Tried  by  the  Senate,  sitting  as  a  High  Court  of  Jus- 
tice, he  was  found  guilty  of  plotting  against  the  state  and  sentenced  to  imprison- 
ment for  life.  His  career  soon  after  ended  in  suicide  and  his  party  dis- 
appeared. 

The  second  event  spoken  of  was  the  Panama  Canal  affair.   De  Lesseps, . 
the  maker  of  the  Suez  Canal,  had  undertaken  to  excavate  a  similar  one' 
across  the  Isthmus  of  Panama,  but  the  work  was  managed  with  such  wild 
extravagance    that   vast    sums    were    spent   and  the  poor   in- 
T^ana"scandal   vestors  widely  ruined,  while  the  canal  remained    a    half-dug 
ditch.     At   a  later  date  this  affair  became   a  great  scandal, 
dishonest  bargains  in  connection  with  it  were  abundantly  unearthed,  bribery 
was  shown  to  have  been  common  in  high  places,  and  France  was  shaken 


THE  RISE  OF  THE  FRENCH  REPUBLIC  287 

to  its  centre  by  the  startling  exposure.  De  Lesseps,  fortunately  for  him, 
escaped  by  death,  but  others  of  the  leaders  in  the  enterprise  were  con- 
demned and  punished. 

In  the  succeeding  years  perils  manifold  threatened  the  existence  of  the 
French  republic.  A  moral  decline  seemed  to  have  sapped  the  foundations 
of  public  virtue,  and  the  new  military  organization  rose  to  a  dangerous 
height  of  power,  becoming  a  monster  of  ambition  and  iniquity  which  over- 
shadowed and  portended  evil  to  the  state.  The  spirit  of  anarchy,  which 

nad  been  so  strikingly  displayed  in  the  excesses  of  the  Parisian 

r  .  .  ,     ,  ,     Anarchy  in 

Commune,  was  shown  later  in  various  instances  of   death  and       France  and 

destruction  by  the  use  of  dynamite  bombs,  exploded   in  Paris      Murder  of 

,       .         ,  „  ...  ,  .  the  President 

and    elsewhere.      But    its    most   striking    example  was  m  the 

murder  of  President  Carnot,  who  was  stabbed  by  an  anarchist  in  the  streets 
of  Lyons.  This  assassination,  and  the  disheartening  exposures  of  dishon- 
esty in  the  Panama  Canal  Case  trials,  stirred  the  moral  sentiment  of  France 
to  its  depths,  and  made  many  of  the  best  citizens  despair  of  the  perma- 
nency of  the  republic. 

But  the  most  alarming  threat  came  from  the  army,  "which  had  grown  in 
power  and  prominence  until  it  fairly  overtopped  the   state,  while   its  leaders 
felt  competent  to  set  at  defiance  the  civil  authorities.      This  despotic  army 
was  an  outgrowth  of  the  Franco-Prussian  war.    The  terrible  punishment  which 
the  French  had  received  in  that  war,  and   in   particular  the  loss  of  Alsace 
and  Lorraine,  filled  them  with  bitter  hatred  of  Germany  and    The  Reorganj_ 
a  burning  desire  for   revenge.     Yet  it  was   evident   that  their      zation  of 
military  organization  was  so  imperfect  as  to  leave   them   help- 
less before  the  army  of  Germany,  and  the  first  thing  to  be  done  was  to  place 
themselves  on  a  level  in  military  strengh  with  their  foe.     To  this  President 
Thiers  had  earnestly  devoted  himself,  and  the  work  of  army  organization 
went  on  until  all  France  was  virtually  converted  into  a  great  camp,  defended 
by  powerful  fortresses,  and  the  whole  people  of  the  country  were  practically 
made  part  and  portion  of  the  army. 

The  final  result  of  this  was  the  development  of  one  of  the  most  complete 
and  well-appointed  military  establishments  in  Europe.  The  immediate 
cause  of  the  reorganization  of  the  army  gradually  passed  away.  As  time 
went  on  the  intense  feeling  against  Germany  softened  and  the  danger  of 
war  decreased.  But  the  army  became  more  and  more  dominant  in  France, 
and,  as  the  century  neared  its  end,  the  autocratic  position  of  its  leaders  was 
revealed  by  a  startling  event,  which  showed  vividly  to  the  world  the  moral 
decadence  of  France  and  the  controlling  influence  and  dominating  power  of 
the  members  of  the  General  Staff.  This  was  the  celebrated  Dreyfus 

16 


288  THE  RISE  OF  THE  FRENCH  REPUBLIC 

Case,  the  cause  celebre  of  the  end  of  the  century.  This  case  is  of  such  im- 
portance that  a  description  of  its  salient  points  becomes  here  necessary. 

Albert  Dreyfus,  an  Alsatian  Jew  and  a  captain  in  the  Fourteenth  Regi- 
ment of  Artillery  of  the  French  army,  detailed  for  service  at  the  Informa- 
The  Opening  ^on  Bureau  of  the  Minister  of  War,  was  arrested  October  15, 
of  the  Drey-  1894,  on  the  charge  of  having  sold  military  secrets  to  a  for- 
eign power.  The  following  letter  was  said  to  have  been 
found  at  the  German  embassy  by  a  French  detective,  in  what  was  declared 
to  be  the  handwriting  of  Dreyfus  : 

"  Having  no  news  from  you  I  do  not  know  what  to  do.  I  send  you  in 
the  meantime  the  condition  of  the  forts.  I  also  hand  you  the  principal  in- 
structions as  to  firing.  If  you  desire  the  rest  I  shall  have  them  copied.  The 
document  is  precious.  The  instructions  have  been  given  only  to  the  officers 
of  the  General  Staff.  I  leave  for  the  manoeuvres." 

For  some  time  prior  to  the  arrest  of  Dreyfus  on  the  charge  of  being 
the  author  of  this  letter,  M.  Drumont,  editor  of  the  Libre  Parole,  had  been 
carrying  on  a  violent  anti-Semitic  agitation  through  his  journal.  He  raved 
about  the  Jews  in  general,  declared  Dreyfus  guilty,  and  asserted  that  there 
was  danger  that  he  would  be  acquitted  through  the  potent  Juiverie,  "the 
cosmopolite  syndicate  which  exploits  France." 

Public  opinion  in  Paris  became  much  influenced  by  this  journalistic  as- 
sault, and  under  these  circumstances  Dreyfus  was  brought  to  trial  before  a 
military  court,  found  guilty  and  condemned  to  be  degraded  from  his  mili- 
tary rank,  and  by  a  special  act  of  the  Chamber  of  Deputies  was  ordered  to 
be  imprisoned  for  life  in  a  penal  settlement  on  Devil's  Island,  off  the  coast 
of  French  Guiana,  a  tropical  region,  desolate  and  malarious  in  character.  The 
sentence  was  executed  with  the  most  cruel  harshness.  During  part  of  his  de- 
tention Dreyfus  was  locked  in  a  hut,  surrounded  by  an  iron  cage,  on  the 
island.  This  was  done  on  the  plea  of  possible  attempts  at  rescue.  He  was 
allowed  to  send  and  Deceive  only  such  letters  as  had  been  transcribed  by  one 
of  his  guardians. 

He  denied,  and  never  ceased  to  deny,  his  guilt.  The  letters  he  wrote 
to  his  counsel  after  the  trial  and  after  his  disgrace  are  most  pathetic  asser- 
tions of  his  innocence,  and  of  the  hope  that  ultimately  justice  would  be  done 
him.  His  wife  and  family  continued  to  deny  his  guilt,  and  used  every  influ- 
ence to  get  his  case  reopened. 

The  first  trial  of  Dreyfus  was  conducted  by  court-martial  and  behind 
closed  doors.  Some  parts  of  the  indictment  were  not  communicated  to  the 
accused  and  his  lawyer.  The  secrecy  of  the  trial,  the  lack  of  fairness  in  its 
management,  his  own  protestations  of  innocence,  the  anti-Jewish  feeling, 


THE  RISE  Or  THE  'FRENCH  REPUBLIC  289 

and    the    course  of  the  government  in  the  affair  aroused  a  strong  suspicion 
that  Dreyfus,  being  a  Jew,  had  been  used  as  a  scapegoat  for  some  one  else 
and  had  been  unjustly  convicted.      Many  eminent  literary  men    Be|ief  jn  the 
of  France,  and  even   M.  Scheurer-Kestner,  a  vice  president  of      Innocence 
the  Senate — none   of  them   Jews — eventually    advocated   the 
revision  of  a  sentence  which  failed  to  appeal  to  the  sense  of  justice  of  the 
best  element  of  France. 

It  was  asserted  by  some  that  Dreyfus  had  sold  the  plans  of  various 
strongly  fortified  places  to  the  German  government,  and  by  others  that  the 
sale  had  been  to  the  Italian  government.  It  was  also  said  that  he  had  dis- 
closed the  plans  for  the  mobilization  of  the  French  army  in  case  of  war, 
covering  several  departments,  and  especially  the  important  fortress  of 
Brian^on,  the  Alpine  Gibraltar  near  the  Italian  frontier. 

The  bordereau,  the  paper  on  which  the  charges  against  Dreyfus  were 
based,  was  a  memorandum   of  treasonable   revelations  concerning  French 
military  affairs.  The  dossier  was  the  official  envelope  containing   The  Bordereau 
the  papers  relative  to  the  case,  which  embraced  facts  alleged  to      and  the 
be  sufficient  to  prove  the  guilt  of  the  accused  officer.     The  bor- 
dereau was  examined  by  five  experts  in  handwriting,  only  three  of  whom  testi- 
fied that  it  could  have  been  written  by  Dreyfus.   The  papers  in  the  dossier  were 
not  shown  to  Dreyfus  or  his  counsel,  so  that  it  was  impossible  to  refute  them. 
In  fact,  the  court-martial  was  conducted  in  the  most  unfair  manner,  and  many 
became  convinced  that   some  disgraceful   mystery  lay  behind  it,   and  that 
Dreyfus  had  been  made  a  scapegoat  to  shield  some  one  higher  in  office. 

It  was  in  the  early  part  of  1898  that  the  case  was  again  brought  promi 
nently  to  public  notice,  after  the  wife  of  the  unfortunate  prisoner  had,  with 
the  most  earnest  devotion  for  three  years,  used  every  effort  to  obtain  for 
him  a  new  trial.  Lieutenant-Colonel  Picquart,  in  charge  of  the  secret 
service  bureau  at  Paris,  became  familiar  through  his  official  duties  with  the 
famous  case,  and  was  struck  with  the  similarity  between  the  handwriting  of 
the  bordereau  and  that  of  Count  Ferdinand  Esterhazy,  an  officer  of  the 
French  army  and  a  descendant  of  the  well-known  Esterhazy 
family  of  Hungary.  Shortly  afterwards  M.  Scheurer-Kestner 
declared  that  military  secrets  had  continued  to  leak  out  after 
the  arrest  of  Dreyfus,  that  in  consequence  a  rich  and  titled  officer  had  been 
requested  to  resign,  and  that  this  officer  was  the  real  author  of  the  bor- 
dereau. This  man  was  Count  Esterhazy,  whose  exposure  was  due  to 
Picquart's  fortunate  discovery.  Others  took  up  this  accusation,  and  the 
affair  was  so  ventilated  that  Esterhazy  was  subjected  to  a  secret  trial  by 
court-martial,  which  ended  in  an  acquittal. 


290 


THE  RISE  OF  THE' FRENCH  REPUBLIC 


At  the  close  of  the  Esterhazy  trial  a  new  defender  of  Dreyfus  stepped 
into  the  fray,  Emile  Zola,  the  celebrated  novelist.      He  wrote  an  open  letter 
to  M.   Faure,   then   President  of  France,  entitled  "  J' accuse "  ("I  accuse"), 
Zola's  Letter      which  was  published  in  the  Aurore  newspaper.      In  it  he  boldly 
and  Accusa-      charged  that  Esterhazy  had  been  acquitted  by  the  members 
of  the  court-martial  on  the  order  of  their  chiefs  in  the  minis- 
try of  war,   who  were  anxious   to  show  that  French   military  justice  could 
not  possibly  make  an  error. 

This  letter  led  to  the  arrest  and  trial  of  Zola  and  the  manager  of  the 

£> 

paper,  their  trial  being  conducted  in  a  manner  specially  designed  to  prevent 
the  facts  from  becoming  known.  They  were  found  guilty  of  libel  against: 
the  officers  of  the  court-martial  and  sentenced  to  heavy  fines  and  one  year's 
imprisonment.  On  appeal,  they  were  tried  again  in  the  same  unfair  way, 
and  received  the  same  sentence.  Zola  took  care,  by  absenting  himself 
from  France,  that  the  sentence  of  a  year's  imprisonment  should  not  be 
executed. 

As  time  went  on  new  evidence  became  revealed.  Colonel  Henry,  who 
was  one  of  the  witnesses  in  the  Zola  trial,  was  confronted  with  a  damaging 
fact,  one  of  the  most  important  papers  in  the  secret  dossier  being  traced  to 
Henry's  For-  him.  He  confessed  that  he  had  forged  it  to  strengthen  the 
geryand  case  against  Dreyfus,  was  imprisoned  for  the  offence,  and 

committed  suicide  in  his  cell — or  was  murdered,  as  some 
thought.  Picquart  was  punished  by  being  sent  to  Africa,  and  afterwards 
imprisoned.  He  made  the  significant  remark  that  if  he  should  be  found 
dead  in  his  cell  it  would  not  be  a  case  of  suicide.  Esterhazy  was  said  to 
have  acknowledged  to  a  London  editor  that  he  was  the  author  of  the  bor- 
dereau, and  it  was  proved  that  the  handwriting  was  identical  with  his  and 
the  paper  on  which  it  was  written  a  peculiar  kind  which  he  had  used  in 
1894.  The  papers  in  the  secret  dossier  were  also  alleged  to  be  a  mass  of 
forgeries. 

The  great  publicity  of  this  case,  in  which  the  whole  world  had  taken 
interest, — the  action  of  the  French  courts  being  universally  condemned, — and 
the  development  of  the  facts  just  mentioned,  at  length  goaded  the  officials 
of  the  French  government  to  action.  President  Faure  had  the  case  con- 
sidered by  the  cabinet,  and  finally  forced  a  revision.  In  consequence  the 
cabinet  resigned  and  a  new  one  was  chosen.  As  a  result  the  case  was 
brought  before  the  Court  of  Cassation,  the  final  court  of  appeal,  which, 
after  full  consideration,  ordered  a  new  trial  of  the  condemned  officer. 

Captain  Dreyfus  was  accordingly  brought  from  Devil's  Island,  and  on 
July  i,  1899,  reached  the  city  of  Rennes,  where  the  new  court-martial  was 


^^ 


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THE    BOMBARDMENT   OF   ALEXANDRIA 

^r»±r4±;,n^^^^^ 

Bu,  u»  ^-ajn  «-^is  suxhssTyiH?fe±,'S  a'S^s.-  b'n>" 


BATTLE    BETWEEN   THE    ENGLISH    AND  THE   ZULUS,    SOUTH    AFRICA 

Of  all  the  natives  encountered  by  the  British  in  Africa,  there  were  none  more  brave  and  daring  than  the  Zulus  of  the  South    who 

did  not  hesitate  with  spear  and  shield  to  charge  against  the  death-dealing  rifles  of  their  foes.    Cetewayo,  the  leader  of  these 

valiant  blacks  was  a  man  who  would  have  been  a  hero  in  civilized  warfare.     As  a  captive  savage  in  London  streets 

:  compelled  the  respect  of  his  enemies  by  the  majestic  dignity  of  his  bearing   and  wo     the  right  to  return 

and  die  in  Ais  native  land. 


THE  RISE  OF  THE  FRENCH  REPUBLIC  293 

to  be  held.      It  is  not  necessary  to  repeat  the  evidence  given  in  this  trial, 
which  lasted  from  August  7th  to  September  yth,  and  with  which  the  world 
is  sufficiently  familiar.     It  will  suffice  to  say  that  the  evidence  against  Drey- 
fus was  of  the  most  shadowy  and  uncertain  character,  being  largely  conjec- 
tures and  opinionsof  army  officers,  and  seemed  insufficient  to  convict  a  criminal 
for  the  smallest  offence  before  an  equitable  court ;  that  the  evidence  in  his 
favor   was    of  the  strongest    character ;  that  the  proceedings    A  second 
were  of  the  loosest  description  ;  that  much  favorable  evidence      Condemna- 
was  ruled  out  by  the  judges,  the  presiding  judge  throughout 
showing  a  bias  against  the  accused  ;  and  that  the  trial  ended  in  a  conviction 
of  the  prisoner,  by  a  vote  of  five  judges  to  two,  the  verdict  being  the  ex- 
traordinary one  of  "guilty  of  treason,  with  extenuating  circumstances"- — as 
if  any  treason  could  be  extenuated. 

This  is  but  an  outline  sketch  of  this  remarkable  case,  which  embraced 
many  circumstances  favorable  to  Dreyfus  which  we  have  not  had  space  to 
give.  The  verdict  was  received  by  the  world  outside  of  France  with 
universal  astonishment  and  condemnation.  The  opinion  was  everywhere 
expressed  that  not  a  particle  of  incriminating  evidence  had  been  adduced, 
and  that  the  members  of  the  court-martial  had  acted  virtually  under  the 
commands  of  their  superior  officers,  who  held  that  the  "  honor  of  the  army  " 
demanded  a  conviction.  Dreyfus  was  thought  by  many  to  have  been  made 
a  victim  to  shield  certain  criminals  of  high  importance  in  the  army,  which 
so  dominated  French  opinion  that  the  great  bulk  of  the  people  pro- 
nounced in  favor  of  the  sacrifice  of  this  innocent  victim  to 
the  Moloch  of  the  French  military  system.  It  was  widely 
felt  in  foreign  lands  that  the  great  development  of  mili- 
tarism in  France,  and  the  vast  influence  of  the  general  staff  of  the  army, 
formed  a  threatening  feature  of  the  governmental  system,  which  might 
at  any  time  overthrow  the  republic  and  form  a  military  empire  upon  its 
ruins.  Two  republics  have  already  been  brought  to  an  end  in  France 
through  the  supremacy  of  the  army,  and  the  safety  of  the  third  is  far  from 
assured.  The  Dreyfus  case  has  thrown  a  flood  of  light  upon  the  volcanic 
condition  of  affairs  in  France. 

The  general  condemnation  of  this  example  of  French  "justice "  by 
the  press  of  other  nations,  and  very  probably  the  recognition  by  the 
governing  powers  of  France  of  the  inadequacy  of  the  evidence  led,  shortly 
after  the  conclusion  of  the  court-martial,  to  the  pardon  of  the  con- 
demned. The  sentence  of  the  court  in  no  sense  affected  his  position  be- 
fore the  world,  he  being  looked  upon  everywhere  outside  of  France  as  a 
victim  of  injustice  instead  of  a  criminal.  The  severity  of  his  imprisonment 


294  THE  RISE  OF  THE  FRENCH  REPUBLIC 

however,  had  seriously  affected  his  health,  and  threatened  to  bring  his  life  to 
an  end  before  he  could  obtain  the  justice  which  he  proposed  to  seek  in  the 
courts  of  France. 

This  remarkable  case,  which  made  an  obscure  officer  of  the  French  army 
the  most  talked-of  and  commiserated  man  among  all  the  peoples  of  the 
earth,  at  the  end  of  the  nineteenth  century,  is  of  further  interest  from  the 
light  it  throws  upon  the  legal  system  of  France  as  compared  with  that  of 
Anglo-Saxon  nations.  Dreyfus,  it  is  true,  was  tried  by  court-martial,  but  the 
procedure  was  similar  to  that  of  the  ordinary  French  courts,  in  which  trial 
by  jury  does  not  exist,  the  judge  having  the  double  function  of  deciding 
upon  the  guilt  or  innocence  of  the  accused  and  passing  sentence ;  while 
efforts  are  made  to  induce  the  prisoner  to  incriminate  himself  which  would 
be  considered  utterly  unjust  in  British  and  American  legal  practice.  The 
French  legal  system  is  a  direct  descendant  of  that  of  ancient  Rome.  The 
British  one  represents  a  new  development  in  legal  methods.  Doubtless  both 
have  their  advantages,  but  the  Dreyfus  trial  seems  to  indicate  that  the  sys- 
tem o£  France  opens  the  way  to  acts  of  barbarous  injustice. 


CHAPTER    XIX. 

Paul  Kruger  and  the  Struggle  for  Dominion  in 
South  Africa. 

AT  the  close  of  the  nineteenth  century,  not  the  least  important  among 
the  international  questions  that  were  disturbing  the  nations  was  the 
controversy  between   the    English   and  the  Boers  in   South   Africa, 
concerning  the  political  privileges  of  the  Uitlanders,  or  foreign  gold  miners 
of  the  Transvaal.      A  consideration  of  this  subject  obliges  us  to  go  back 
to  the  beginning  of  the  century  and   review   the  whole  history  of  coloniza- 
tion in  South  Africa. 

That  region  belongs  by  right  of  settlement  to  the  Dutch,  who  founded 
a  colony  in  the  region  of  Capetown  as  early  as   1650,  and  in    Th 
the  succeeding  century  and  a  half  spread  far  and  wide  over      Settlement  in 
the  territory,  their  farms  and  cattle  ranches  occupying  a  very       South  Africa 
wide  area.      The  first  interference  with    their  peaceful  occupation  came  in 
1795,  when  the  English   took  possession.      In    1800,  however,  they  restored 
the  colony  to  Holland,  which  held  it  in  peaceable  ownership  until  the  Con- 
gress of  Vienna,  in  1815,  came  to  disturb  the  map  of  Europe,  and  in  a  meas- 
ure  that   of   the   world.      As  part  of   the   distribution  of   spoils  among  the 
great  nations,  Cape  Colony  was  ceded  to   Great   Britain.      Since  then  that 

country,  which  has  a  great  faculty  of  taking-  hold  and  a  very 

r  i        •  i         i     i  j  •  j  i  u     i    Qreat  Britain  in 

poor  taculty  ot  letting  go,  has  held  possession,  and  has  pushed      cape  Colony 

steadily   northward   until  British  South  Africa    is  now  a  terri-     and  the  Emi- 
tory  of  enormous  extent,  stretching  northward  to  the  borders      |J^ 
of  the  Congo  Free  State  and  to  Lake  Tanganyika. 

This  vast  territory  has  not  been  gained  without  active  and  persistent 
aggression,  from  which  the  Dutch  settlers,  known  as  Boers,  and  the  African 
natives  have  alike  suffered.  In  truth,  the  Boers  found  the  oppression  of 
British  rule  an  intolerable  burden  early  in  the  century,  and  in  1840  a  great 
party  of  them  gave  up  their  farms  and  "  treked  "  northward — that  is,  traveled 
with  their  ox-teams  and  belongings — eager  to  get  away  from  British  con- 
trol. Here  they  founded  a  republic  of  their  own  on  the  river  Vaal,  and 
settled  down  again  to  peace  and  prosperity. 

295 


296          PAUL  KRUGER  AND  THE  STRUGGLE  IN  SOUTH  AFRICA 

The  country  in  which  they  settled  was  a  huntsman's  paradise.      On  the 

great   plains   of   the   High  Veldt  or  plateau  (from   4.000  to    7,000  feet  in 

height)  antelopes  of  several  species  roamed  in  tens  of  thousands.      In  the 

valleys  and  plains  of  the  low  country  the  giraffe,  elephant, 

A  Huntsman's     buffalo,    lion   and   other  larre    animals  were    plentiful.      The 

p*ra.  disc 

rivers  were  full  of  alligators  and  hippopotami.  Here  the  new- 
comers found  abundance  of  food,  and  a  land  of  such  pastoral  wealth  that 
the  farm  animals  they  brought  increased  abundantly.  For  years  a  steady 
stream  of  Boers  continued  to  enter  and  settle  in  this  land,  deserting  their 
farms  in  the  British  territory,  harnessing  their  cattle  to  their  long,  lumber- 
ing wagons,  and  bringing  with  them  food  for  the  journey,  and  a  good 
supply  of  powder  and  lead  for  use  in  their  tried  muskets.  Their  active 
hunting  experience  brought  them  in  time  to  rank  among  the  best  marks- 
men in  the  world. 

They  had  not  alone  wild  animals  to  deal  with,  but  wild  men  as  well. 
Fierce  tribes  of  natives  possessed  the  land,  and  with  these  the  Boers  were 
soon  at  war.  A  number  of  sanguinary  battles  were  fought,  with  much 
The  Boers  slaughter  on  both  sides,  but  in  the  end  the  black  men  were 

Drive  Out  forced  to  give  way  to  the  whites  and  cross  the  Limpopo  River 
the  Blacks  jntQ  Matabeleland,  to  the  north,  which  their  descendants  still 
occupy.  Others  of  the  natives  were  subdued  and  continued  to  live  with  the 
Boers.  The  latter  were  essentially  pioneers.  They  did  not  till  the  soil, 
but  divided  up  the  land  into  great  grazing  ranges,  covered  with  their 
abundant  herds.  And  they  had  no  instinct  for  trade,  what  little  commerce 
the  country  possessed  falling  into  British  hands. 

Two  settlements  were  made,  one  between  the  Orange  and  the  Vaal 
rivers,  and  the  other  north  of  the  Vaal.  The  former  had  much  trouble 
with  the  British  previous  to  1854,  in  which  year  it  was  given  its  indepen- 
dence. It  is  known  as  the  Orange  River  Free  State.  The  latter  was  given 
The  South  Afri-  ^6  name  °f  Transvaal,  and  originally  formed  four  separate 
can  Republic  republics,  but  in  1860  these  united  into  one  under  the  title 
of  the  South  African  Republic.  The  settlers  were  for  a  time 
covered  with  the  shadow  of  British  sovereignty,  the  claims  of  the  British 
extending  up  to  the  25th  degree  of  latitude.  But  this  claim  was  only  on  paper, 
and  in  1852  it  was  withdrawn,  Great  Britain  formally  renouncing  all  rights 
over  the  country  north  of  the  Vaal.  And  for  years  afterwards  the  Boers 
lived  on  here  free  and  undisturbed. 

But  their  country  possessed  other  wealth  than  that  of  pasture  lands, 
and  its  hidden  treasures  were  to  yield  them  no  end  of  trouble  in  the 
years  to  come.  Under  their  soil  lay  untold  riches,  which  in  time  brought 


PAUL  KRUGER  AND  THE  STRUGGLE  IN  SOUTH  AFRICA          297 

hosts  of  unruly  strangers  to  disturb  their  pastoral  peace.  The  trouble 
began  in  1867,  when  diamonds  were  found  in  the  vicinity  of  the  Vaal  River, 
and  a  rush  of  miners  began  to  invade  this  remote  district. 

But    the    diamond    mines    lay    west    of    the    borders    of    the    The  Discovery 
_  ,  of  Diamonds 

1  ransvaal,  and    brought  rather  a  threatening  situation    than 

immediate  disturbance  to  the  Boer  state.  It  was  the  later  discovery  of  gold 
on  Transvaal  territory  that  eventually  overthrew  the  quiet  content  of  the 
pastoral  community. 

In  1877  the  first  intrusion  came.  The  British  were  now  abundant  in 
Griqualand  West,  the  diamond  region,  and  on  the  Transvaal  borders 
lay  a  host  of  native  enemies,  chief  among  them  being  the  warlike  Zulus, 
led  by  the  bold  and  daring  Cetewayo.  Only  fear  of  the  British  kept 
this  truculent  chief  at  rest.  Meanwhile  the  Boer  Republic  had  fallen 
into  a  financial  collapse.  Its  frequent  wars  with  the  natives  had  ex- 
hausted its  revenues  and  thrown  it  deeply  into  debt.  A  shepstone's 
serious  crisis  seemed  impending.  On  the  plea  of  preventing  Annexation  of 
this,  Sir  Theophilus  Shepstone,  secretary  of  Natal,  made  his  the  Transvaal 
way  to  Pretoria,  the  capital  of  the  republic,  and  issued  a  proclamation 
annexing  the  Transvaal  country  to  Great  Britain.  The  public  treasury  he 
found  to  be  almost  empty,  it  containing  only  twelve  shillings  and  six  pence, 
and  even  part  of  this  was  counterfeit  coin.  His  act  was  arbitrary  and  unwar- 
ranted, and  while  the  Boers  submitted,  they  did  so  with  sullen  anger, 
quietly  biding  their  time. 

In  the  following  year  the  Zulus,  who  had  been  threatening  the  Boers, 
broke  out  into  war  with  the  British,  and  with  such  energy  that  the  whites 
were  at  first  repulsed  by  the  impetuous  Cetewayo  and  his  warlike  followers. 
In  this  onset  Prince  Napoleon,  son  of  the  deposed  emperor  Louis  Napo- 
leon, who  served  as  a  volunteer  in  the  British  ranks,  was  killed.  The  British 
soon  retrieved  the  disaster,  and  in  the  end  decisively  defeated  The  2uhj  War 
the  Zulus,  capturing  their  king,  who  was  taken  as  a  prisoner 
to  London.  After  the  Zulu  war  Sir  Garnet  Wolseley  led  his  troops  into  the 
Transvaal,  telling  the  protesting  Boers  that  "  so  long  as  the  sun  shone  and 
the  Vaal  River  flowed  to  the  sea  the  Transvaal  would  remain  British  terri- 
tory." Other  acts  of  interference,  and  the  attempt  of  the  British  officials 
to  tax  the  Boers,  added  to  their  exasperation,  and  at  the  end  of  1880  they 
resolved  to  fight  for  the  independence  of  which  they  had  been  robbed. 
Wolseley  had  before  this  left  the  territory,  and  the  troops  had  been  reduced 
to  a  few  detachments,  scattered  here  and  there. 

The  first  hostile  action  took  place  on  December  20,  1880,  a  detachment 
of  the  Ninety-fourth  regiment,  on  its  march  to  Pretoria,  being  waylaid  by  a 


298          PAUL  KRUGER  AND  THE  STRUGGLE  IN  SOUTH  AFRICA 

body  of  about  150  armed  Boers,  who  ordered  them  to  stop.  Colonel  Ans- 
truther  curtly  replied  :  "  I  go  to  Pretoria  ;  do  as  you  like."  The  Boers 
did  more  than  he  liked.  They  closed  in  on  his  columns  and 
°Penecl  on  them  so  deadly  a  fire  that  the  British  fell  at  a  fright- 
ful rate.  Out  of  259  in  all,  155  had  fallen  dead  or  wounded 
in  ten  minutes'  time.  Then  the  colonel,  himself  seriously  wounded,  ordered 
a  surrender,  and  the  Boers  at  once  became  as  friendly  as  they  had  just  been 
hostile.  They  had  lost  only  two  killed  and  five  wounded. 

As  soon  as  news  of  this  disaster  reached  Natal,  Colonel  Sir  George 
Colley,  in  command  at  Natal,  marched  against  the  Boers  without  waiting 
for  reinforcements,  the  force  at  his  disposal  being  but  1,200  men.  He  paid 
dearly  for  his  temerity  and  contempt  of  the  enemy.  On  January  28,  1881, 
he  was  encountered  by  the  Boers  at  a  place  called  Lang's  Nek,  and  met  with 
a  bloody  defeat.  In  about  a  week  afterwards  another  engagement  took 
place,  in  which  the  British  lost  139  officers  and  men,  while  the  whole  Boer 
joss  was  14.  Practised  hunters,  their  fire  was  so  deadly  that  almost  every 
shot  found  its  mark. 

The  war  was  going  badly  for   the   British.      It  was  soon   to  go  worse. 

Receiving    reinforcements,    Colley  made  a  stand    in    an    elevated    position 

known  as  Majuba  Hill,  whose   summit  was    2,000  feet  above  the   positions 

held  by  the  Boers  and  its  ascent  so  steep  and  rugged  that  the 

Majuba  Hill       soldiers  had  to   climb  it  in  single  file.      Near  the   top  of  the 

ascent   the  grassy  slopes  were   succeeded   by  boulders,    crags, 

and  loose  stones,  over  which  the  weary  men  had  to  drag  themselves  on  hands 

and  knees.      In  this  way  about  400  men  gained  the  summit  on  the  morning 

of  February  27th.      The  top  of  the   hill  was  a  saucer-shaped  plateau,  about 

1,200    yards  wide,    with    an    elevated    rim    within    which    the    British  were 

posted. 

The  place  seemed  impregnable,. but  the  daring  Boers  did  not  hesitate 
in  the  attack.  A  force  of  the  older  men  were  detailed  to  keep  on  the  watch 
below — picked  shots  ready  to  fire  on  any  soldier  who  should  appear  on  the  rim 
of  the  hill.  The  younger  men  began  to  climb  the  slopes,  under  cover  of  the 
shrub  and  stones.  The  assault  was  made  on  every  side,  and  the  defenders, 
too  weak  in  numbers  to  hold  the  whole  edge  of  the  plateau,  had  to  be  moved 
from  point  to  point  to  meet  and  attempt  to  thwart  the  attacks  of  the  Boers. 
Slowly  and  steadily  the  hostile  skirmishers  clambered  upwards  from  cover 
to  cover,  while  the  supports  below  protected  their  movement  with  a  steady 
and  accurate  fire.  During  the  hours  from  dawn  to  noon  the  British  did  not 
suffer  very  heavily,  notwithstanding  the  accuracy  of  the  Boer  marksmanship. 
But  the  long  strain  of  the  Boers'  close  shooting  began  to  tell  on  the  morale  of 


PAUL  KRUGER  AND  THE  STRUGGLE  IN  SOUTH  AFRICA          299 

the  British  soldiers,  and  when  the  enemy  at  length  reached  the  crest  and  opened 
a  deadly  fire  at  short  range  the  officers  had  to  exert  themselves  to  the  utmost 
in  the  effort  to  avert  disaster.  The  reserves  stationed  in  the  central  dip  of 
the  plateau,  out  of  reach  until  then  of  the  enemy's  fire,  were  ordered  up  in 
support  of  the  fighting  line.  Their  want  of  promptitude  in  obeying  this 
order  did  not  augur  well,  and  soon  after  reaching  the  front  they  wavered,  and 
then  gave  way.  The  officers  temporarily  succeeded  in  rallying  them,  but  the 
"bolt"  had  a  bad  effect.  To  use  the  expression  of  an  eye-witness,  a  "funk 
became  established." 

It  was  struggled  against  very  gallantly  by  the  officers,  who,  sword  and 
revolver  in  hand,  encouraged  the  soldiers  by  word  and  by  action.  A  num- 
ber of  men,  unable  to  confront  the  deadly  fire  of  the  Boers,  had  huddled 
for  cover  behind  the  rocky  reef  crossing  the  plateau,  and  no  The  Boers 
entreaty  or  upbraiding  on  the  part  of  their  officers  would  Storm  the 
induce  them  to  face  the  enemy.  What  then  happened  one  Bntlsh  CamP 
does  not  care  to  tell  in  detail.  Everything  connected  with  this  disastrous 
enterprise  went  to  naught,  as  if  there  had  been  a  curse  on  it.  Whatever 
may  have  been  the  object  intended,  the  force  employed  was  absurdly  inade- 
quate. Instead  of  being  homogeneous,  it  consisted  of  separate  detach- 
ments with  no  link  or  bond  of  union — a  disposition  of  troops  which  notoriously 
has  led  to  more  panics  than  any  other  cause  that  the  annals  of  regimental  his- 
tory can  furnish.  Fragments  of  proud  and  distinguished  regiments  fresh 
from  victory  on  another  continent  shared  in  the  panic  of  the  Majuba, 
seasoned  warriors  behaving  no  better  than  mere  recruits.  To  the  calm- 
pulsed  philosopher  a  panic  is  an  academic  enigma.  No  man  who  has  seen 
it — much  less  shared  in  it — can  ever  forget  the  infectious  madness  of  panic- 
stricken  soldiers. 

In  the  sad  ending,  with  a  cry  of  fright  and  despair  the  remnants  of  the 
hapless  force  turned  and  fled,  regardless  of  the  efforts  of  the  officers  to 
stem  the  rearward  rush.  Sir  George  Colley  lay  dead,  shot  through  the 
head  just  before  the  final  flight.  A  surgeon  and  two  hospital  attendants 
caring  for  the  wounded  at  the  bandaging  place  in  the  dip  of 
the  plateau  were  shot  down,  probably  inadvertently.  The  elder 
Boers  promptly  stopped  the  firing  in  that  direction.  But 
there  was  no  cessation  of  the  fire  directed  on  the  fugitives.  On  them  the 
bullets  rained  accurately  and  persistently.  The  Boers,  now  disdaining 
cover,  stood  boldly  on  the  edge  of  the  plateau,  and,  firing  down  upon  the 
scared  troops,  picked  off  the  men  as  if  shooting  game.  The  slaughter  would 
have  been  yet  heavier  but  for  the  entrenchment  which  had  been  made 
by  the  company  of  the  Ninety-second,  left  overnight  on  the  Nek,  between 


3oo          PAUL  KRUGER  AMD  THE  STRUGGLE  IN  SOUTH  AFRICA 

the  Inquela  and  the  Majuba.  Captain  Robertson  was  joined  at  dawn  from 
camp  by  a  company  of  the  Sixtieth,  under  Captain  Thurlow.  Later  there 
arrived  at  the  entrenchment  on  the  Nek  a  troop  of  the  Fifteenth  Hussars, 
under  the  command  of  Captain  Sullivan.  After  midday  the  sound  of  the 
firing  on  the  Majuba  rapidly  increased,  and  men  were  seen  running  down 
the  hill  towards  the  laager,  one  of  whom  brought  in  the  tidings  that  the 
Boers  had  captured  the  position,  that  most  of  the  troops  were  killed  or 
prisoners,  and  that  the  general  was  dead  with  a  bullet  through  his  head. 

Wounded  men  presently  came  pouring  in,  and  were  attended  by 
Surgeon-Major  Cornish.  The  laager  was  manned  by  the  companies,  and 
outposts  were  thrown  out,  which  were  soon  driven  in  by  large  bodies  of 
mounted  Boers,  under  whose  fire  men  fell  fast  Robertson  dispatched  the 
rifle  company  down  the  ravine  towards  the  camp,  and  a  little  later  followed 
with  the  company  of  the  Ninety-second  under  a  murderous  fire  from  the 
Boers,  who  had  reached  and  occupied  the  entrenchment.  The  Highlanders 
A  Pani  FH  ht  ^ost  ^eav^Y  m  t^le  retreat,  and  Surgeon-Major  Cornish  was 
killed.  The  surviving  fugitives  from  Majuba  and  from  the 
laager  finally  reached  camp  under  cover  of  the  artillery  fire  from  it,  which 
ultimately  stopped  the  pursuit.  With  the  consent  of  the  Boer  leaders  a 
temporary  hospital  was  established  at  a  farm-house  near  the  foot  of  the 
mountain,  and  throughout  the  cold  and  wet  night  the  medical  staff  never 
ceased  to  search  for  and  bring  in  the  wounded.  Sir  George  Colley's  body 
was  brought  into  camp  on  March  ist,  and  buried  there  with  full  military 
honors. 

Of  650  officers  and  men  who  took  part  in  this  disastrous  affair  the  loss 
in  killed,  wounded,  and  prisoners  was  283  ;  the  Boers  had  one  man  killed 
and  five  wounded.  Majuba  Hill  was  enough  for  the  British,  fighting  as 
they  were  in  an  unjust  cause.  An  armistice  was  agreed  upon,  followed  by 
a  treaty  of  peace  on  March  23d.  Large  reinforcements  had  been  sent  out, 
which  would  have  given"  the  British  an  army  of  20,000  against  the  8,000 
Peace  Declared  Boers,  capable  of  bearing  arms  ;  but  to  fight  longer  in  defence 
with  British  of  an  arbitrary  invasion  against  such  brave  defenders  of  their 
Suzerainty  homes  and  their  rights,  did  not  appeal  to  the  conscience  of 
Mr.  Gladstone,  and  he  lost  no  time  in  bringing  the  war  to  an  end.  By  the 
terms  of  the  treaty  the  Boers  were  left  free  to  govern  themselves  as  they 
would,  they  acknowledging  the  queen  as  suzerain  of  their  country,  with 
control  of  its  foreign  relations. 

The  next  important  event  in  the  history  of  the  Transvaal  was  the  ex- 
ploitation of  its  gold  mines.  Gold  was  discovered  there  soon  after  the  open- 
ing  of  the  diamond  mines,  but  not  under  very  promising  conditions.  It  exists 


wM 


:**, 


THE    BATTLE    OF    MAJUBA    HILL,    BETWEEN    THE    ENGLISH    AND    BOERS,    SOUTH    AFRICA 

The  greatest  disaster  ever  experienced  by  the  British  in  Africa  wa 

of  1880-81  with  the  Boers,  a.  British  force  occupied  the  flat  top  of 

slaughter.     The  attempt  to  recapture  the  hill  in  the  face  of  the  skilled  Boer  marksmen  was  simply 
a  climb  to   death,  and  the  day   ended  in  a   serious  defeat  for   the  invaders. 


at  Majuba  Hill,  in  the  South  African  Republic.    In  the  • 
this  steep  elevation,  but  was  driven  out  with  great 


PAUL  KRUGER  AND  THE  STRUGGLE  IN  SOUTH  AFRICA          303 

in  a  conglomerate  rock,  whose  beds  extend  over  an  area  of  seventy  by  forty 
miles,  and  through  a  depth  of  from   two   to   twenty  feet ;  but  years  passed 
before   the   richness   in   metal  of  these  rocks  was   discovered,    The  Qold  Dig- 
and    it   was  not   until   after  the   Boer  war  that   mining   fairly      gingsofthe 
began.      No    one    in    his  wildest    dreams  foresaw    that    these       Transvaal 
"banket"  beds  would  in  time  yield  gold  to  the  value  of  more  than  $60,000,- 
ooo  a  year.      The  yield  of   the  diamond  mines  was  also  enormous,  and  these 
two   incitements   brought  a  steady  stream  of  new   settlers   to   that   region, 
destined  before  many  years  greatly  to  outnumber   the   sturdy  farmers  and 
herders  of  Dutch  descent. 

In  the  vicinity  of  the  gold   mines,  not  far  from  Pretoria,  the  Boer  capi- 
tal,   rose  the  mining  city  of  Johannesburg,  which   now  has  a  population   of 
more  than  100,000  souls,  of  whom  half  are  European  miners  and  nearly  all 
the  remainder  are  natives.    The  great  event  in  the  history  of  the 
diamond  mines  was  the  advent  thither  of  Cecil  Rhodes.    This       Cecil  j^hodes 
remarkable  man,  the  son  of  a  country  parson  in  England,  who 
was  ordered  to  South  Africa  for   the  benefit  of  his  failing   lungs,  displayed 
such  enterprise  and  ability  that  he  soon  became  the  leading  figure  in  the  dia- 
amond  mining  industry,  organizing  a  company  that-  controlled  the  mines,  and 
accumulating  an  immense  fortune. 

This  accomplished,  he  entered  actively  into  South  African  politics,  and 
was  not  long  in  immensely  extending  the  dominion  of  Great  Britain  in  that 
region  of  the  earth.  He  obtained  from  Lord  Salisbury,  prime  minister  of 
Great  Britain,  a  royal  charter  giving  him  the  right  to  occupy  and  govern  the 
great  territory  lying  between  the  Limpopo  River  on  the  south  and  the  Zam- 
besi on  the  north,  and  extending  far  to  the  north  and  the  west  of  the  South 
African  Republic.  With  an  expedition  of  a  thousand  men,  volunteers  from 
the  Transvaal  and  the  Cape  Colony,  Rhodes  marched  north  through  a  coun- 
try filled  with  armed  Zulus, — the  best  fighting  stuff  in  Africa, — and  reached 
the  spot  where  now  stands  the  flourishing  town  of  Fort  Salisbury  without 
firing  a  shot  or  losing  a  man.  Here  gold  mines  were  opened,  the  resources 
of  the  country  developed,  and  within  three  years  as  many  important  town- 
ships were  founded  and  settled. 

Not  until  July,  1893,  did  trouble  with  the  natives  arise.  Then  a  rupture 
took  place  with  the  Matabele  chief,  Lobengula,  who  sent  against  the  whites 
powerful  bands  of  his  dreaded  Zulu  warriors,  numbering-  in 

1  ui      i          TU  t,     T-V      T  War  With  the 

all  over  20,000  armed  blacks.     I  hese  were  met  by  Dr.  Jameson,      Matabeles 
the  administrator  of  the  chartered  territory,  and  dealt  with  so 
vigorously  and  skilfully  that  in  two  months  the  power  of  the  Matabeles  was  at 
an  end,  their  army  was  practically  annihilated,  their  great  kraals  were  occupied, 


304          PAUL  KRUGER  AND  THE  STRUGGLE  IN  SOUTH  AFRICA 

and  their  king  was  driven  from  his  capital  into  the  desert,  where  he  died  two 
months  later.  Thus  Cecil  Rhodes  added  to  the  dominion  of  Great  Britain 
a  territory  as  large  as  France  and  Germany,  very  fertile  and  healthful,  and 
rich  in  gold  and  other  metals. 

Zambesia — or  Rhodesia,  as   it  is  often   called— now  extends  far  to  the 

The  Domain  of     nortn  °f  tne  Zambesi  River,  being  bordered  on  the   north  by 

the  South         the  Congo  Free  State  and  Lake  Tanganyika,  and  on   the  east 

African  by  Lake   Nyassa,  and  embracing   the   heart  of  South  Africa. 

This    territory  was    chartered    in  1889   by  tne    British    South 

Africa   Company,  with  Cecil  Rhodes,  then    premier  of  the  Cape  Colony,  as 

its  managing  director  and  practical  creator. 

The  rapid  development  of  British  interests  in  South  Africa,  the  acqui- 
sition of  territory  in  great  part  surrounding  the  South  African  Republic, — 
which  was  completely  cut  off  from  the  sea  by  British  and  Portuguese  terri- 
tory,— and  the  growth  of  a  large  foreign  population  on  the  soil  of  the 
republic  itself,  could  not  fail  to  be  a  source  of  great  annoyance  to  the  Boers, 
who  deeply  mistrusted  their  new  neighbors.  Their  effort  to  get  away  from 
the  British  had  been  a  failure.  They  were  surrounded  and  overrun  by 
them.  It  is  true,  the  coming  of  the  gold  miners  had  been  a  great  boon  to 
What  the  t^le  ^oer  'm  one  way*  From  having  an  empty  treasury,  he  had 

Foreigners        now  an  overflowing  one.      The  tax  on  the  gold  product  had 
Brought  to        made  the  government  rich.      The  foreigners  had  also  brought 
the     railway,    the     electric    light,    the    telegraph,    cheap    and 
abundant  articles  of  every-day  use,  newspapers,  schools,  and  other  append- 
ages of  civilization,  but  it  is  doubtful  if  these  were  as  welcome  to  the  Boers 
as  the  cash   contribution,  since   they  tended  to  break  up  their  simple,  patri- 
archal style  of  living  and  destroy  their  time-honored  customs. 

The  question  that  particularly  troubled  the  Boer  mind  was  a  political 
one.      Paul  Kruger,  the  president  of  the  republic,  was  a  man  of  remarkable 
character,  an  astute  statesman,  a  shrewd  politician,  with  an  iron   will  and 
keen  judgment,  a  personage  strikingly  capable  of  dealing  with  a  disturbing 
situation.     While   ignorant  in   book  lore,   he   had  associated  with  him  as 
secretary  of  state  an  educated  Hollander,  Dr.   Leyds  by  name,  one  of  the 
ablest  and  shrewdest  statesmen  in  South  Africa.      The  pair  of  them  were  a 
Paul  Kruger         c^ose  matcn  (or  l^e    bold  and   aspirmg    Cecil    Rhodes,   then 
andtheUit-      premier  of  the  Cape  Colony.      The  difficulty  they  had  to  deal 
landers  with  was  the  following  :  The  Uitlander  (Outlander  or  foreign) 

element  in  the  republic  had  grown  so  enormously  as  far  to  outnumber  the 
Dutch.  The  country  presented  the  anomaly  of  a  minority  of  15,000  igno- 
rant and  unprogressive  Dutch  burghers  ruling  a  majority  of  four  or  five 


PAUL  KRUGER  AND  THE  STRUGGLE  IN  SOUTH  AFRICA          305 

times  their  number  of  educated,  wealthy  and  prosperous  aliens,  who,  while 
possessing  the  most  valuable  part  of  the  territory,  were  given  no  voice  in 
its  government.  They  were  not  only  deprived  of  legislative  functions  in  the 
country  at  large,  but  also  of  municipal  functions  in  the  city  of  their  own 
creation,  and  they  demanded  in  vain  a  charter  that  would  enable  them  to 
control  and  improve  their  own  city.  President  Kruger,  fearing  to  have  his 
government  overwhelmed  by  these  Anglo-Saxon  strangers,  sternly  deter- 
mined that  they  should  have  no  political  foothold  in  his  state  until  after  a 
long  residence,  forseeing  that  if  they  were  given  the  franchise  on  easy  terms 
they  would  soon  control  the  state.  In  this  sense  the  gold  which  was  making 
them  rich  seemed  a  curse  to  the  Boers,  since  it  threatened  to  bring  them 
again  under  the  dominion  of  the  hated  Englishman. 

In  1895  th6  state  of  affairs  reached  a  critical  point.  The  British  in 
Matabeleland,  north  of  the  Transvaal,  were  in  warm  sympathy  with  their 
brethren  in  Johannesburg,  and  between  them  a  plot  was  laid  to  overthrow 
Kruger  and  his  people.  An  outbreak  took  place  in  Johannesburg,  led  by 
Colonel  F.  W.  Rhodes,  brother  of  Cecil  Rhodes,  by  whom  it  was  thought 
to  have  been  instigated.  It  was  quickly  followed  by  an  invasion  from 
Matabeleland,  led  by  Dr.  L.  S.  Jameson,  Cecil  Rhodes'  lieu- 
tenant in  that  region.  The  movement  was  a  hasty  and 
ill-considered  one.  The  invaders  were  met  by  the  bold  Boers, 
armed  with  their  unerring  rifles,  were  surrounded  and  forced  to  surrender, 
and  their  leaders  were  put  on  trial  for  their  lives. 

Paul  Kruger,  however,  was  shrewd  enough  not  to  push  the  matter  to 
extremities.  Jameson  and  his  confederates  were  set  at  liberty  and  allowed 
to  return  to  England,  where  they  were  tried,  convicted  of  invading  a  friendly 
country  and  imprisoned — Cecil  Rhodes  going  free.  This  daring  man  soon 
after  suppressed  an  extensive  revolt  of  the  Matabeles,  and  gained  the 
reputation  of  designing  to  found  a  great  British  nationality  in  South  Africa. 
At  a  later  date  he  devised  the  magnificent  scheme  of  building  a  railroad 
throughout  the  whole  length  of  Africa,  from  Cairo  to  Cape  Colony,  and 
threw  himself  into  this  ambitious  enterprise  with  all  his  accustomed  energy 
and  organizing  capacity. 

The  victory  of  the  Boers  over  Jameson  and  his  raiders  did  not  bring 
to  an    erfd    the  strained  relations  in   Johannesburg.      The  demand  of   the 
Uitlanders    for    political     rights    and    privileges    grew    more    The  Demands 
earnest  and  insistant  as  time  went  on,  and  the  British  govern-      of  the  Uit- 
ment,  on    the  basis    of  its   suzerainty,  began  to  take  a  hand       Ianders 
in   it.      The   right-  to  vote,  under  certain   stringent  conditions  as  to  period 
of  residence  and  declaration  of  intention  to  become  citizens,  was  accorded 


306          PAUL  KRUGER  AND  THE  STRUGGLE  IN  SOUTH  AFRICA 

by  the  Boer  government,  but  was  far  from  satisfactory  to  the  foreign  resi- 
dents, who  demanded  the  suffrage  under  less  rigorous  conditions. 

In  1899  the  state  of  affairs  became  critical,  England  taking  a  more 
decided  stand,  and  strongly  pressing  her  claim  to  a  voice  in  the  status  of 
British  residents  under  her  suzerainty — despite  the  fact  that  the  latter  gave 
her  no  right  to  interfere  in  the  domestic  affairs  of  the  state.  Joseph  Cham- 
berlain, secretary  of  state  for  the  colonies,  demanded  a  more  equitable 
arrangement  than  that  existing,  and  his  insistence  led  to  a  conference 
between  the  Boer  authorities  and  those  of  Cape  Colony.  But  President 
Kruger  refused  to  yield  to  the  full  demands  made  upon  him,  while  the  con- 
cessions which  he  offered  were  not  satisfactory  to  the  British  cabinet. 

Negotiations  went  on  during. the  summer  and  early  autumn  of  1899, 
but  at  the  same  time  both  sides  were  actively  preparing  for  war,  and  Great 
Britain  had  begun  to  send  large  contingents  of  troops  to  South  Africa.  The 
state  of  indecision  came  to  a  sudden  end  on  October  loth.  President 
Kruger  apparently  fearing  that  Joseph  Chamberlain,  who  conducted  the 
negotiations,  was  deceiving  him,  and  seeking  delay  until  he  could  land  an 
overwhelming  force  in  South  Africa,  sent  a  sudden  ultimatum  to  the  British 
cabinet.  They  were  bidden  to  remove  the  troops  which  threatened  the 
borders  of  his  state  before  five  o'clock  of  the  next  day  or  accept  war  as 
the  alternative. 

Such  a  mandate  from  a  weak  to  a  strong  state  was  not  likely  to  be  com- 
plied with.  The  troops  were  not  removed,  and  the  Boers  promptly  crossed 
the  borders  into  Natal  on  the  east  and  Cape  Colony  on  the  west.  The 
Orange  River  Free  State  had  joined  the  South  African  Republic  in  its 
attitude  of  hostility,  and  the  British  on  the  borders  found  themselves  out- 
numbered and  outgeneraled.  The  towns  of  Mafeking  and  Kimberley  on 
the  west  were  closely  besieged,  and  on  the  east  the  outlying  troops  were 
driven  back  on  Ladysmith,  where  General  White,  the  British  commander, 
met  with  a  severe  repulse,  losing  two  entire  regiments  as  prisoners. 

Meanwhile  General  Buller,  the  British  commander-in-chief,  had  reachec 
Cape  Town  and  a  powerful  army  was  on  the  ocean,  and  it  was  widely  felt 
that  the  successes  of  the  Boers  were  but  preliminaries  to  a  desperate  strug- 
gle whose  issue  only  time  could  decide. 


SIX   TYPICAL  AMERICAN   NOVELISTS. 


CHAPTER  XX 
The  Rise  of  Japan  and  the  Decline  of  China. 

ASIA,  the  greatest  of  the  continents  and  the  seat  of  the  earliest  civiliza 
tions,  yields  us  the  most  remarkable  phenomenon  in  the  history  of 
mankind.  In  remote  ages,  while  Europe  lay  plunged  in  the  deepest 
barbarism,  certain  sections  of  Asia  were  marked  .by  surprising  activity  in 
thought  and  progress.  In  three  far-separated  regions — China,  India,  and 
Babylonia — and  in  a  fourth  on  the  borders  of  Asia — Egypt  Asia  the  Orijri- 
— civilization  rose  and  flourished  for  ages,  while  the  savage  nalSeatof 
and  the  barbarian  roamed  over  all  other  regions  of  the  earth.  Civilization 
A  still  more  extraordinary  fact  is,  that  during  the  more  recent  era,  that  of 
European  civilization,  Asia  has  rested  in  the  most  sluggish  conservatism, 
sleeping  while  Europe  and  America  were  actively  moving,  content  with  its 
ancient  knowledge  while  the  people  of  the  West  were  pursuing  new  knowl- 
edge into  its  most  secret  lurking  places. 

And  this  conservatism  is  an  almost  immovable  one.  For  a  century 
England  has  been  pouring  new  thought  and  new  enterprise  into  India,  yet 
the  Hindoos  cling  stubbornly  to  their  remotely  ancient  beliefs  and  customs. 
For  half  a  century  Europe  has  been  hammering  upon  the  gates  of  China, 
but  the  sleeping  nation  shows  little  signs  of  waking  up  to  the  fact  that  the 
world  is  moving  around  it.  As  regards  the  other  early  civili-  Tne  siuggish- 
zations — Babylonia  and  Egypt  —  they  have  been  utterly  ness  of  Hod- 
swamped  under  the  tide  of  Turkish  barbarism  and  exist  only  ern  Asia 
in  their  ruins.  Persia,  once  a  great  and  flourishing  empire,  has  likewise 
sunk  under  the  flood  of  Arabian  and  Turkish  invasion,  and  to-day,  under  its 
ruling  Shah,  is  one  of  the  most  inert  of  nations,  steeped  in  the  self-satisfied 
barbarism  that  has  succeeded  its  old  civilization.  Such  was  the  Asia  upon 
which  the  nineteenth  century  dawned,  and  such  it  remains  to-day  except  in 
one  remote  section  of  its  area,  in  which  alone  modern  civilization  has  gained 
a  firm  foothold. 

The  section  referred  to  is  the  island  empire  of  Japan,  a  nation  the  people 

of  which  are  closely  allied  in  race  to  those  of  China,  yet  which  has  displayed 

a  progressiveness  and  a  readiness  to  avail  itself  of  the  resources  of  modern 

civilization  strikingly  diverse  from  the  obstinate  conservatism  of  its  densely 

17  3°9 


3io  THE  RISE  OF  JAPAN  AND  THE  DECLINE  OF  CHINA 

settled  neighbor.     The  development  of  Japan  has   taken   place  within   the 
The  Seclusion      Past   na^  century.      Previous  to  that  time   it  was  as   resistant 
of  China  to  western    influences  as  China.      They  were   both  closed  na- 

and  Japan  tions,  prohibiting  the  entrance  of  modern  ideas  and  peoples, 
proud  of  their  own  form  of  civilization  and  their  own  institutions,  and  sternly 
resolved  to  keep  out  the  disturbing  influences  of  the  restless  west.  As  a 
result,  they  remained  locked  against  the  new  civilization  until  after  the 
nineteenth  century  was  well  advanced,  and  China's  disposition  to  avail  itself 
of  the  results  of  modern  invention  was  not  manifested  until  the  century 
was  near  its  end. 

China,  with  its  estimated  population  of  nearly  400,000,000,  attained  to 
a  considerable  measure  of  civilization  at  a  very  remote  period,  but  has  made 
almost  no  progress  during  the  Christian  era,  being  content  to  retain  its  old 
ideas,  methods  and  institutions,  which  its  people  look   upon   as  far  superior 
to  those  of  the  western  nations.      Great  Britain  gained  a  foot- 
of  China  hold  in  China  as  early  as  the  seventeenth  century,  but  the  per- 

sistent attempt  to  flood  the  country  with  the  opium  of  India, 
in  disregard  of  the  laws  of  the  land,  so  annoyed  the  emperor  that  he  had  the 
opium  of  the  British  stores  at  Canton,  worth  $20,000,000,  seized  and  de- 
stroyed. This  led  to  the  "opium  war"  of  1840,  in  which  China  was  defeated 
and  was  forced  to  accept  a  much  greater  degree  of  intercourse  with  the 
world,  five  ports  being  made  free  to  the  world's  commerce  and  Hong  Kong 
ceded  to  Great  Britain.  In  1856  an  arbitrary  act  of  the  Chinese  authorities 
at  Canton,  in  forcibly  boarding  a  British  vessel  in  the  Canton  River,  led  to  a 
new  war,  in  which  the  French  joined  the  British  and  the  allies  gained  fresh  con- 
cessions from  China.  In  1859  the  war  was  renewed,  and  Peking  was  occu- 
pied by  the  British  and  French  forces  in  1860,  the  emperor's  summer  palace 
being  destroyed. 

These  wars  had  their  effect  in  largely  breaking  down  the  Chinese  wall 
of  seclusion  and  opening  the  empire  more  fully  to  foreign  trade  and  inter- 
course, and  also  in  compelling  the  emperor  to  receive  foreign  ambassadors 
at  his  court  in  Peking.  In  this  the  United  States  was  among  the  most  suc- 
cessful of  the  nations,  from  the  fact  that  it  had  always  maintained  friendly 
relations  with  China.  In  1876  a  short  railroad  was  laid,  and  in  1877  a  telegraph 
line  was  established.  During  the  remainder  of  the  century  the  telegraph 
service  was  widely  extended,  but  the  building  of  railroads  was  strongly  op- 
posed, and  not  until  the  century  had  reached  its  end  did  the  Chinese  awaken 
to  the  importance  of  this  method  of  transportation.  They  did,  however, 
admit  steam  traffic  to  their  rivers,  and  purchased  some  powerful  ironclad 
naval  vessels  in  Europe. 


THE  RISE  OF  JAPAN  AND  THE  DECLINE  OF  CHINA  311 

The  isolation  of  Japan  was  maintained  longer  than  that  of  China, 
trade  with  that  country  being  of  less  importance,  and  foreign  nations  know- 
ing and  caring  less  about  it.  The  United  States  has  the  credit  of  breaking 
down  its  long  and  stubborn  seclusion  and  setting  in  train  the  How  Japan  Was 
remarkably  rapid  development  of  the  Japanese  island  empire.  Opened  to 
In  1854  Commodore  Perry  appeared  with  an  American  fleet  Commerce 
in  the  bay  of  Yeddo,  and,  by  a  show  of  force  and  a  determination  not  to  be 
rebuffed,  he  forced  the  authorities  to  make  a  treaty  of  commercial  inter- 
course with  the  United  States.  Other  nations  quickly  demanded  similar 
privileges,  and  Japan's  obstinate  resistance  to  foreign  intercourse  was  at  an 
end. 

The  result  of  this  was  revolutionary  in  Japan.  For  centuries  the  Shogun, 
or  Tycoon,  the  principal  military  noble,  had  been  dominant  in  the  empire, 
and  the  Mikado,  the  true  emperor,  relegated  to  a  position  of  obscurity.  The 
entrance  of  foreigners  disturbed  conditions  so  greatly — by  developing  par- 
ties for  and  against  seclusion — that  the  Mikado  was  enabled  to  regain  his 
long-lost  power,  and  in  1868  the  ancient  form  of  government  was  restored. 

Meanwhile  the  Japanese  began  to  show  a  striking  activity  in  the  accept- 
ance of  the  results  of  western  civilization,  both  in  regard  to  objects  of  com- 
merce, inventions,  and  industries,  and  to  political  organization.  The  latter 

advanced  so  rapidly  that  in  1889  the  old  despotic  government 

,         ,  ,     .  .  ,&  r          Great  Develop- 

was,  by  the  voluntary  act  ot  the  emperor,  set  aside  and  a  lim-      ment  of  Japan 

ited  monarchy  established,  the  country  being  given  a  constitu- 
tion and  a  legislature,  with  universal  suffrage  for  all  men  over  twenty-five. 
This  act  is  of  remarkable  interest,  it  being  doubtful  if  history  records  any 
similar  instance  of  a  monarch  decreasing  his  authority  without  appeal  ot 
pressure  from  his  people.  I  indicates  a  liberal  spirit  that  could  hardly 
have  been  looked  for  in  a  nation  so  recently  emerging  from  semi-barbarism. 
To-day,  Japan  differs  little  from  the  nations  of  Europe  and  America  in  its 
institutions  and  industries,  and  from  being  among  the  most  backward,  has 
taken  its  place  among  the  most  advanced  nations  of  the  world. 

The  Japanese  army  has  been  organized  upon  the  European  system, 
and  armed  with  the  most  modern  style  of  weapons,  the  German  method  of 
drill  and  organization  being  adopted.  Its  navy  consists  of  over  fifty  war 
vessels,  principally  built  in  the  dock-yards  of  Europe  and  America,  and  of 
the  most  advanced  modern  type,  while  a  number  of  still  more  powerful 
ships  are  in  process  of  building.  Railroads  have  been  widely  extended  ; 
telegraphs  run  everywhere  ;  education  is  in  an  advancing  stage  of  develop- 
ment, embracing  an  imperial  university  at  Tokio,  and  institutions  in  which 
foreign  languages  and  science  are  taught ;  and  in  a  hundred  ways  Japan  is 


312  THE  RISE  OF  JAPAN  AND  THE  DECLINE  OF  CHINA 

progressing  at  a  rate  which  is  one  of  the  greatest  marvels  of  the  nineteenth 
century.  This  is  particularly  notable  in  view  of  the  obstinate  adherence 
of  the  neighboring  empire  of  China  to  its  old  customs,  and  the  slowness 
with  which  it  is  yielding  to  the  influx  of  new  ideas. 

As  a  result  of  this  difference  in  progress  between  the  two  nations,  we 
have  to  describe  a  remarkable  event,  one  of  the  most  striking  evidences  that 

could  be  criven  of  the  practical  advantage  of  modern  civiliza- 
A  Remarkable  .  KT°  .  .  ,  . 

Event  tlon-       Near    the    end    ot     the    century    war     broke    out    be- 

tween China  and  Japan,  and  there  was  shown  to  the  world  the 
singular  circumstance  of  a  nation  of  40,000,000  people,  armed  with  modern 
implements  of  war,  attacking  a  nation  of  400,000,000 — equally  brave, 
but  with  its  army  organized  on  an  ancient  system — and  defeating  it 
as  quickly  and  completely  as  Germany  defeated  France  in  the  Franco- 
German  War.  This  war,  which  represents  a  completely  new  condition  of 
events  in  the  continent  of  Asia,  is  of  sufficient  interest  and  importance  to 
speak  of  at  some  length. 

Between  China  and  Japan  lies  the  kingdom  of  Corea,  separated  by 
rivers  from  the  former  and  by  a  strait  of  the  ocean  from  the  latter,  and 
claimed  as  a  vassal  state  by  both,  yet  preserving  its  independence  as  a  state 
against  the  pair.  Japan  invaded  this  country  at  two  different  periods  in  the 
past,  but  failed  to  conquer  it.  China  has  often  invaded  it,  with  the  same 
result.  Thus  it  remained  practically  independent  until  near  the  end  of  the 
nineteenth  century,  when  it  became  a  cause  of  war  between  the  two  rival 
empires. 

Corea  long  pursued  the  same  policy  as  China  and  Japan,  locking 
its  ports  against  foreigners  so  closely  that  it  became  known  as  the  Hermit 
Corea  Opened  Nation  and  the  Forbidden  Land.  But  it  was  forced  to  give 
to  Foreign  way,  like  its  neighbors.  The  opening  of  Corea  was  due  to 
intercourse  Japan  ln  ^76  the  Japanese  did  to  this  secluded  kingdom 
what  Commodore  Perry  had  done  to  Japan  twenty-two  years  before.  They 
sent  a  fleet  to  Seoul,  the  Corean  capital,  and  by  threat  of  war  forced  the 
government  to  open  to  trade  the  port  of  Fusan.  In  1880  Chemulpo  was 
made  an  open  port.  Later  on  the  United  States  sent  a  fleet  there  which 
obtained  similar  privileges.  Soon  afterwards  most  of  the  nations  of 
Europe  were  admitted  to  trade,  and  the  isolation  of  the  Hermit  Nation 
was  at  an  end.  Less  than  ten  years  had  sufficed  to  break  down  an 
isolation  which  had  lasted  for  centuries.  In  less  than  twenty  years  after — 
in  the  year  1899 — an  electric  trolley  railway  was  put  in  operation  in  the 
streets  of  Seoul — a  remarkable  evidence  of  the  great  change  in  Corean 
policy, 


THE  RISE  OF  JAPAN  AND  THE  DECLINE  OF  CHINA  313 

Corea  was  no  sooner  opened  to  foreign  intercourse  than  China  and 
Japan  became  rivals  for  influence  in  that  country — a  rivalry  in  which  Japan 
showed  itself  the  more  active.,  The  Coreans  became  divided  into  two 
factions,  a  progressive  one  that  favored  Japan,  and  a  conservative  one  that 
favored  China.  Japanese  and  Chinese  soldiers  were  sent  to  the  country, 
and  the  Chinese  aided  their  party,  which  was  in  the  ascendant  among  the 
Coreans,  to  drive  out  the  Japanese  troops  War  was  threatened,  but  it  was 
averted  by  a  treaty  in  1885  under  which  both  nations  agreed  to  withdraw 
their  troops  and  to  send  no- officers  to  drill  the  Corean  soldiers. 

The  war,  thus  for  the  time  averted,  came  nine  years  afterwards,  in  con- 
sequence of  an  insurrection  in  Corea.  The  people  of  that  country  were 
discontented.  They  were  oppressed  with  taxes  and  by  tyranny, 
and  in  1894  tne  followers  of  a  new  religious  sect  broke  out  in 
open  revolt.  Their  numbers  rapidly  increased  until  they  were 
20,000  strong,  and  they  defeated  the  government  troops,  captured  a  provincial 
city,  and  put  the  capital  itself  in  danger.  The  Min  (or  Chinese)  faction 
was  then  at  the  head  of  affairs  in  the  kingdom  and  called  for  aid  from 
China,  which  responded  by  sending  some  two  thousand  troops  and  a  num- 
ber of  war  vessels  to  Corea.  Japan,  jealous  of  any  such  action  on  the  part 
of  China,  responded  by  surrounding  Seoul  with  soldiers,  several  thousands 
in  number. 

Disputes  followed.  China  claimed  to  be  suzerain  of  Corea  and  Japan 
denied  it.  Both  parties  refused  to  withdraw  their  troops,  and  the  Japanese, 
finding  that  the  party  in  power  was  acting  against  them,  advanced  on  the 
capital,  drove  out  the  officials,  and  took  possession  of  the  palace  and  the 
king.  A  new  government,  made  up  of  the  party  that  favored  Japan,  was 
organized,  and  a  revolution  was  accomplished  in  a  day.  The  new  author- 
ities declared  that  the  Chinese  were  intruders  and  requested  the  aid  of  the 
Japanese  to  expel  them.  War  was  close  at  hand. 

China  was  at  that  time  under  the  leadership  of  a  statesman  of  marked 
ability,  the  famous  Li  Hung  Chang,  who,  from  being  made  viceroy  of  a 
province  in  1870,  had  risen  to  be  the  prime  minister  of  the  empire.  At  the 
head  of  the  empire  was  a  woman,  the  Dowager  Empress  Tsu  Li  Hung  Chang 
Tsi,  who  had  usurped  the  power  of  the  young  emperor  and  and  the  Em  - 
ruled  the  state.  It  was  to  these  two  people  in  power  that  pre 
the  war  was  due.  The  dowager  empress,  blindly  ignorant  of  the  power 
of  the  Japanese,  decided  that  these  "insolent  pigmies"  deserved  to  be 
chastised.  Li,  her  right-hand  man,  was  of  the  same  opinion.  At'the  last 
moment,  indeed>  doubts  began  to  assail  his  mind,  into  which  came  a  dim 
idea  that  the  army  and  navy  of  China  were  not  in  shape  to  meet  the 


3  r4  THE  RISE  OF  JAPAN  AND  THE  DECLINE  OF  CHINA 

forces  of  Japan.      But    the  empress    was  resolute.      Her   sixtieth  birthday 
was  at  hand  and  she  proposed  to  celebrate  it  magnificently  ;  and  what  better 
decorations  could  she  display  than  the  captured  banners  of  these  insolent 
islanders  ?     So  it  was  decided  to  present  a  bold  front,  and,  instead  of  the 
troops  of  China  being  removed,  reinforcements  were  sent  to  the  force  at  Asan. 
There  followed  a  startling  event.     On  July  25th  three  Japanese  men-of- 
war,  cruising  in  the  Yellow  Sea,  came  in  sight  of  a  transport  loaded  with 
Chinese   troops   and   convoyed   by  two   ships  of   the   Chinese   navy.      The 
The  Sinking  of     Japanese  admiral  did  not  know  of  the  seizure  of  Seoul  by  the 
the  Chinese      land  forces,  but  he  took  it  to  be  his  duty  to  prevent  Chinese 
troops  from  reaching  Corea,  so  he  at  once  attacked  the  war 
ships  of  the  enemy,  with  such  effect  that  they  were  quickly  put  to  flight. 
Then  he  sent  orders  to  the  transport  that  it  should  put  about  and  follow 
his  ships. 

This  the  Chinese  generals  refused  to  do.  They  trusted  to  the  fact 
that  they  were  on  a  chartered  British  vessel  and  that  the  British  flag  flew 
over  their  heads.  The  daring  Japanese  admiral  troubled  his  soul  little 
about  this  foreign  standard,  but  at  once  opened  fire  on  the  transport,  and 
with  such  effect  that  in  half  an  hour  it  went  to  the  bottom,  carrying  with  it 
one  thousand  men.  Only  about  or>e  hundred  and  seventy  escaped. 

On  the  same  day  that  this  terrible  act  took  place  on  the  waters  of  the 

sea,   the  Japanese  left  Seoul  en  route  for  Asan.      Reaching 

D  War3*10"  °*      there,   they  attacked   the   Chinese   in   their  works  and   drove 

them  out.     Three  days  afterwards,  on  August   i,    1894,  both 

countries  issued  declarations  of  war. 

Of  the  conflict  that  followed,  the  most  interesting  events  were  those 
that  took  place  on  the  waters,  the  land  campaigns  being  an  unbroken  series 
of  successes  for  the  well-organized  and  amply-armed  Japanese  troops  over  the 
mediaeval  army  of  China,  which  went  to  war  fan  and  umbrella  in  hand,  with 
antiquated  weapons  and  obsolete  organization.  The  principal  battle  was 
fought  at  Ping  Yang  on  September  i5th,  the  Chinese  losing 
i6,ooo  killed,  wounded  and  captured,  while  the  Japanese  loss 
was  trifling.  In  November  the  powerful  fortress  of  Port 
Arthur  was  attacked  by  army  and  fleet,  and  surrendered  after  a  two  days' 
siege.  Then  the  armies  advanced  until  they  were  in  the  vicinity  of  the 
Great  Wall,  with  the  soil  and  capital  of  China  not  far  before  them. 

With  this  brief  review  of  the  land  operations,  we  must  return  to  the 
performances  of  the  fleets,  which  were  of  high  interest  as  forming  the  sec- 
ond occasion  in  which  a  modern  ironclad  fleet  had  met  in  battle — the  first 
being  that  already  described  in  which  the  Austrians  defeated  the  Italians  at 


THE  RISE  OF  JAPAN  AND  THE  DECLINE  OF  CHINA  315 

Lissa.  Backward  as  the  Chinese  were  on  land,  they  were  not  so  on  the  sea. 
Li  Hung  Chang,  progressive  as  he  was,  had  vainly  attempted  to  introduce 
railroads  into  China,  but  he  had  been  more  successful  in  regard  to  ships, 
and  had  purchased  a  navy  more  powerful  than  that  of  Japan.  The  heaviest 
ships  of  Japan  were  cruisers,  whose  armor  consisted  of  deck  and  interior 
lining  of  steel.  The  Chinese  possessed  two  powerful  battle-  The  Chinese 
ships,  with  14-inch  iron  armor  and  turrets  defended  with  12-  and  Japanese 
inch  armor,  each  carrying  four  1 2-inch  guns.  Both  navies  had 
the  advantage  of  European  teaching  in  drill,  tactics,  and  seamanship.  The 
Ting  Yuen,  the  Chinese  flagship,  had  as  virtual  commander  an  experienced 
German  officer  named  Van  Hanneken  ;  the  Chen  Yuen,  the  other  big  iron- 
clad, was  handled  by  Commander  M'Giffen,  formerly  of  the  United  States 
navy.  Thus  commanded,  it  was  expected  in  Europe  that  the  superior 
strength  of  the  Chinese  ships  would  ensure  them  an  easy  victory  over  those 
of  Japan.  The  event  showed  that  this  was  a  decidedly  mistaken  view. 

It  was  the  superior  speed  and  the  large  number  of  rapid-fire  guns  of 
the  Japanese  vessels  that  gave  them  the  victory.  The  Chinese  guns  were 
mainly  heavy  Krupps  and  Armstrongs.  They  had  also  some  machine  guns, 
but  only  three  quick-firers.  The  Japanese,  on  the  contrary,  had  a  few  heavy 
armor-piercing  guns,  but  were  supplied  with  a  large  number  of  quick-firing 
cannon,  capable  of  pouring  out  shells  in  an  incessant  stream.  Admiral  Ting 
and  his  European  officers  expected  to  come  at  once  to  close  quarters  and 
quickly  destroy  the  thin  armored  Japanese  craft.  But  the  shrewd  Admiral 
Ito,  commander  of  the  fleet  of  Japan,  had  no  intention  of  being  thus  dealt 
with.  The  speed  of  his  craft  enabled  him  to  keep  his  distance  and  to  dis- 
tract the  aim  of  his  foes,  and  he  proposed  to  make  the  best  use  of  this  ad- 
vantage. Thus,  equipped  the  two  fleets  came  together  in  the  month  of  Sep- 
tember, and  an  epoch-making  battle  in  the  history  of  the  ancient  conti- 
nent of  Asia  was  fought. 

On  the  afternoon  of  Sunday,  September  i6th,  Admiral  Ting's  fleet, 
consisting  of  n  warships,  4  gunboats,  and  6  torpedo  boats,  anchored  off 
the  mouth  of  the  Yalu  River.  They  were  there  as  escorts  to  some  trans- 
ports, which  went  up  the  river  to  discharge  their  troops.  Admiral  Ito  had 
been  engaged  in  the  same  work  farther  down  the  coast,  and  early  on  Monday 

morning   came   steaming    towards  the  Yalu    in  search  of    the 

TTii-  -11  i  i-  r     i  The  Fleets  off 

enemy.      Under  him  were   in  all  twelve  ships,    none  of  them      the  Yalu  River 

with    heavy  armor,  one   of    them    an    armed    transport.      The 
swiftest  ship  in  the  fleet  was  the  Yoskino,  capable  of  making  twenty-three 
knots,  and  armed  with  44  quick-firing  Armstrongs,  which  would  discharge 
nearly  4,000  pounds  weight  of  shells  every  minute..   The  heaviest  guns  were 


316  THE  RISE  OF  JAPAN  AND  THE  DECLINE  OF  CHINA 

long  13-inch  cannon,  of  which  four  ships  possessed  one  each,  protected  by  12- 
inch  shields  of  steel.  Finally,  they  had  an  important  advantage  over  the 
Chinese  in  being  abundantly  supplied  with  ammunition. 

With  this  formidable  fleet  I  to  steamed  slowly  to  the  north-westward. 
Early  on  Monday  morning  he  was  off  the  island  of  Hai-yun-tao.  At 
seven  A.M.  the  fleet  began  steaming  north-eastward.  It  was  a  fine 
autumn  morning.  The  sun  shone  brightly,  and  there  was  only  just  enough 
of  a  breeze  to  ripple  the  surface  of  the  water.  The  long  line  of  warships 
cleaving  their  way  through  the  blue  waters,  all  bright  with  white  paint,  the 
chrysanthemum  of  Japan  shining  like  a  golden  shield  on  every  bow,  and  the 
same  emblem  flying  in  red  and  white  from  every  masthead  must  have  been 
a  grand  spectacle.  Some  miles  away  to  port  rose  the  rocky  coast  and  the  blue 
hills  of  Manchuria,  dotted  with  many  an  island,  and  showing  here  and  there 
a  little  bay  with  its  fishing  villages.  On  the  other  side,  the  waters  of  the 
wide  Corean  Gulf  stretched  to  an  unbroken  horizon.  Towards  eleven 
The  Cruise  of  o'clock  the  hills  at  the  head  of  the  gulf  began  to  rise. 
Admiral  ito's  ito  had  in  his  leading  ship,  the  Yoshino,  a  cruiser  that  would 
have  made  a  splendid  scout.  In  any  European  navy  she 
would  have  been  steaming  some  miles  ahead  of  her  colleagues  with,  perhaps, 
another  quick  ship  between  her  and  the  fleet  to  pass  on  her  signals.  Ito 
however  seems  to  have  done  no  scouting,  but  to  have  kept  his  ships  in  single 
line  ahead,  with  a  small  interval  between  the  van  and  the  main  squadron.  At 
half-past  eleven  smoke  was  seen  far  away  on  the  starboard  bow,  the  bearing 
being  east-north-east.  It  appeared  to  come  from  a  number  of  steamers  in 
line,  on  the  horizon,  The  course  was  altered  and  the  speed  increased.  Ito 
believed  that  he  had  the  Chinese  fleet  in  front  of  him.  He  was  right. 
The  smoke  was  that  of  Ting's  ironclads  and  cruisers  anchored  in  line,  with 
steam  up,  outside  the  mouth  of  the  Yalu. 

On  Monday  morning  the  Chinese  crews  had  been  exercised  at  their 
guns,  and  a  little  before  noon,  while  the  cooks  were  busy  getting  dinner 
ready,  the  lookout  men  at  several  of  the  mastheads  began  to  call  out  that 
they  saw  the  smoke  of  a  large  fleet  away  on  the  horizon  to  the  south-west. 
Admiral  Ting  was  as  eager  for  the  fight  as  his  opponents.  At  once  he 
signalled  to  his  fleet  to  weigh  anchor,  and  a  few  minutes  later  ran  up  the 
signal  to  clear  for  action. 

A  similar  signal  was  made  by  Admiral  Ito  half-an-hour  later,  as  his 
ships  came  in  sight  of  the  Chinese  line  of  battle.  The  actual  moment  was 
five  minutes  past  noon,  but  it  was  not  until  three-quarters  of  an  hour  later 
that  the  fleets  had  closed  sufficiently  near  for  the  fight  to  begin  at  long 
range.  This  three-quarters  of  an  hour  was  a  time  of  anxious,  and  eager 


THE  RISE  OF  JAPAN  AND  THE  DECLINE  OF  CHINA  317 

expectation  for  both  Chinese  and  Japanese.  Commander  McGiffen  of  the 
Chen  Yuen  has  given  a  striking  description  of  the  scene  when  "  the  deadly 
space"  between  the  two  fleets  was  narrowing,  and  all  were  watching  for  the 
flash  and  smoke  of  the  first  gun  : — "The  twenty-two  ships,"  he  says,  "trim 
and  fresh-looking  in  their  paint  and  their  bright  new  bunting,  and  gay  with 
fluttering  signal-flags,  presented  such  a  holiday  aspect  that  one  found 
difficulty  in  realizing  that  they  were  not  there  simply  for  a  friendly  meeting. 
But,  looking  closer  on  the  Chen  Yuen,  one  could  see  beneath  this  gayety 
much  that  was  sinister.  Dark-skinned  men,  with  queues  tightly  coiled 
round  their  heads,  and  with  arms  bared  to  the  elbow,  clustered  along  the 
decks  in  groups  at  the  guns,  waiting  impatiently  to  kill  or  be  The  Chinese 
killed.  Sand  was  sprinkled  along  the  decks,  and  more  was  on  the  "Chen 
kept  handy  against  the  time  when  they  might  become  slip- 
pery. In  the  superstructures,  and  down  out  of  sight  in  the  bowels  of  the 
ship,  were  men  at  the  shell  whips  and  ammunition  hoists  and  in  the  torpedo 
room.  Here  and  there  a  man  lay  flat  on  the  deck,  with  a  charge  of  powder 
— fifty  pounds  or  more — in  his  arms,  waiting  to  spring  up  and  pass  it  on 
when  it  should  be  wanted.  The  nerves  of  the  men  below  deck  were  in 
extreme  tension.  On  deck  one  could  see  the  approaching  enemy,  but  below 
nothing  was  known,  save  that  any  moment  might  begin  the  action,  and 
bring  in  a  shell  through  the  side.  Once  the  battle  had  begun  they  were  all 
right ;  but  at  first  the  strain  was  intense.  The  fleets  closed  on  each  other 
rapidly.  My  crew  was  silent.  The  sub-lieutenant  in  the  military  foretop 
was  taking  sextant  angles  and  announcing  the  range,  and  exhibiting  an 
appropriate  small  signal-flag.  As  each  range  was  called,  the  men  at  the 
guns  would  lower  the  sight-bars,  each  gun  captain,  lanyard  in  hand,  keeping 
his  gun  trained  on  the  enemy.  Through  the  ventilators  could  be  heard  the 
beats  of  the  steam  pumps  ;  for  all  the  lines  of  hose  were  joined  up  and 
spouting  water,  so  that,  in  case  of  fire,  no  time  need  be  lost.  Every  man's 
nerves  were  in  a  state  of  tension,  which  was  greatly  relieved  as  a  huge 
cloud  of  white  smoke,  belching  from  the  Ting  Yuens  starboard  barbette, 
opened  the  ball." 

The  shot  fell  a  little  ahead  of  the  Yoshino,  throwing  up  a  tall  column 
of  white  water.  Admiral  Ito,  in  his  official  report,  notes  that  this  first  shot 
was  firecl  at  ten  minutes  to  one.  The  range,  as  noted  on  the  Chen  Yuen, 
was  5,200  yards,  or  a  little  over  three  and  a  half  miles.  The 
heavy  barbette  and  bow  guns  of  the  Chen  Yuen  and  other  ships 
now  joined  in,  but  still  the  Japanese  van  squadron  came  on 
without  replying.  For  five  minutes  the  firing  was  all  on  the  side  of  the 
Chinese.  The  space  between  the  Japanese  van  and  the  hostile  line  had 


318  THE  RISE  OF  JAPAN  AND  THE  DECLINE  OF  CHINA 

diminished  to  3,000  yards — a  little  under  two  miles.  The  Yoshino,  the  leading 
ship,  was  heading  for  the  centre  of  the  Chinese  line,  but  obliquely,  so  as  to 
pass  diagonally  along  the  front  of  the  Chinese  right  wing.  At  five  minutes 
to  one  her  powerful  battery  of  quick-firers  opened  on  the  Chinese,  sending 
out  a  storm  of  shells,  most  of  which  fell  in  the  water  just  ahead  of  the  Ting 
and  Chen  Yuen.  Their  first  effect  was  to  deluge  the  decks,  barbettes  and 
bridges  of  the  two  ironclads  with  the  geysers  of  water  flung  up  by  their 
impact  with  the  waves.  In  a  few  minutes  every  man  on  deck  was  soaked 
to  the  skin.  One  by  one  the  other  ships  along  the  Japanese  line  opened 
fire,  and  then,  as  the  range  still  diminished,  the  Chinese  machine-guns, 
Hotchkisses  and  Nordenfelts  added  their  sharp,  growling  reports  to  the 
deeper  chorus  of  the  heavier  guns. 

The  armored  barbettes  and  central  citadels  of  the  two  Chinese  battle- 
ships were  especially  the  mark  of  the  Japanese  fire.  Theoretically  they 
ought  to  have  been  pierced  again  and  again,  but  all  the  harm  they  received 
were  some  deep  dents  and  grooves  in  the  thick  plates.  But  through  the 
thin  lined  hulls  of  the  cruisers  the  shells  crashed  like  pebbles  through  glass, 
the  only  effect  of  the  metal  wall  being  to  explode  the  shells  and  scatter  their 
fragments  far  and  wide. 

The  Chinese  admiral  had  drawn  up  his  ships  in  a  single  line,  with  the 
large  ones  in  the  centre  and  the  weaker  ones  on  the  wings.  Ito's  ships  came 
up  in  column,  the  Yoshino  leading,  his  purpose  being  to  take  advantage  of  the 

superior  speed  of  his  ships  and  circle  round  his  adversary.  Past 
Admiral  Ito's  ,  ~u.  .  ,  ..  Tr  .  .  V  . 

Strategy  tne  Chinese   right  wing  swept  the  swift  Yoshino,   pouring   in 

the  shells  from  her  rapid-fire  guns  on  the  unprotected  vessels 
there  posted,  one  of  which,  the  Yang  Wei,  was  soon  in  flames.  The  ships 
that  followed  tore  the  woodwork  of  the  Chao  Yung  with  their  shells,  and 
she  likewise  burst  into  flames.  The  slower  vessels  of  the  Japanese  fleet 
lagged  behind  their  speedy  leaders,  particularly  the  little  Heijei,  which  fell 
so  far  in  the  rear  as  to  be  exposed  to  the  fire  of  the  whole  Chinese  fleet.  In 
The  Daring  tn^s  dilemma  its  captain  displayed  a  daring  spirit.  Instead  of 
^ct?.f  *?e  following  his  consorts,  he  dashed  straight  for  the  line  of  the 

enemy,  passing  between  two  of  their  larger  vessels  at  500 
yards  distance.  Two  torpedoes  were  launched  at  him,  but  missed  their 
mark.  But  he  was  made  the  target  of  a  heavy  fire,  and  came  through  with 
his  craft  in  flames.  At  2.23  the  blazing  Chao  Yung- went  to  the  bottom  with 
all  on  board. 

As  a  result  of  the  Japanese  evolution,  their  ships  finally  closed  in  on 
the  Chinese  on  both  sides  and  the  action  reached  its  most  furious  phase. 
The  two  flag-ships,  the  Japanese  Matsushima  and  the,  Chinese  Ting  Yuen, 


THE  RISE  OF  JAPAN  AND  THE  DECLINE  OF  CHINA  319 

battered  each  other  with  their  great  guns,  the  wood-work  of  the  latter  being 
soon    in   flames,  while  a  heap    of  ammunition  on    the  Matsushima  was  ex- 
ploded by  a  shell  and  killed   or  wounded   eighty  men.     The 
Chinese  flag-ship  would  probably  have  been  destroyed  by  the      shima"  and 
flames  but  that  her  consort  came  to   her  assistance.     By  five      the  "Ting 
o'clock  the  Chinese  fleet  was  in  the  greatest  disorder,  several 
of  its  ships  having  been  sunk  or  driven  in  flames  ashore,  while  others  were 
in  flight.     The  Japanese  fire  was  mainly  concentrated  on  the  two  large  iron- 
clads, which  continued  the  fight,  their  thick  armor  resisting  the  heaviest  guns 
of  the  enemy. 

Signals  and  signal  halyards  had  been  long  since  shot  away,  and  all  the 
signalmen  killed  or  wounded  ;  but  the  two  ships  conformed  to  each  other's 
movements,  and  made  a  splendid  fight  of  it.  Admiral  Ting  had  been  insen- 
sible for  some  hours  at  the  outset  of  the  battle.  He  had  stood  too  close  to 
one  of  his  own  big  guns  on  a  platform  above  its  muzzle,  and  had  been 
stunned  by  the  upward  and  backward  concussion  of  the  air  ;  but  he  had  re- 
covered consciousness,  and,  though  wounded  by  a  burst  shell,  was  bravely 
commanding  his  ship.  Von  Hanneken  was  also  wounded  in  one  of  the  bar 
bettes.  The  ship  was  on  fire  forward,  but  the  hose  kept  the  flames  under. 
The  Chen  Yuen  was  almost  in  the  same  plight.  Her  commander,  McGiffen, 
had  had  several  narrow  escapes.  When  at  last  the  lacquered  woodwork  on 
her  forecastle  caught  fire,  and  the  men  declined  to  go  forward  and  put  it  out 
unless  an  officer  went  with  them,  he  led  the  party.  He  was 

.  .  i        r  i  1  McQiffen's  Ter= 

stooping  down  to  move  something  on  the  forecastle,  when  a  rible  Danger 
shot  passed  between  his  arms  and  legs,  wounding  both  his 
wrists.  At  the  same  time  he  was  struck  down  by  an  explosion  near  him. 
When  he  recovered  from  the  shock  he  found  himself  in  a  terrible  position. 
He  was  lying  wounded  on  the  forecastle,  and  full  in  front  of  him  he  saw  the 
muzzle  of  one  of  the  heavy  barbette  guns  come  sweeping  round,  rise,  and 
then  sink  a  little,  as  the  gunners  trained  it  on  a  Japanese  ship,  never  noticing 
that  he  lay  just  below  the  line  of  fire.  It  was  in  vain  to  try  to  attract  their 
attention.  In  another  minute  he  would  have  been  caught  in  the  fiery  blast. 
With  a  great  effort  he  rolled  himself  over  the  edge  of  the  forecastle,  drop- 
ping on  to  some  rubbish  on  the.cnain  deck,  and  hearing  the  roar  of  the  gun 
as  he  fell. 

The  battle  now  resolved  itself  into  a  close  cannonade  of  the  two  iron- 
clads by  the  main  body  of  the  Japanese  fleet,  while  the  rest  of  the  ships 
kept  up  a  desultory  fight  with  the  three  other  Chinese  ships  and  the  gun- 
boats. The  torpedo  boats  seem  to  have  done  nothing.  Commander 
McGiffen  says  that  their  engines  had  been  worn  out,  and  their  fittings 


320  THE  RISE  OF  JAPAN  AND  THE  DECLINE  OF  CHINA 

shaken  to  pieces,  by  their  being  recklessly  used  as  ordinary  steam  launches 
in  the  weeks  before  the  battle.  The  torpedoes  fired  from  the  tubes  of  the 
battleships  were  few  in  number,  and  all  missed  their  mark,  one,  at  least, 
going  harmlessly  under  a  ship  at  which  it  was  fired  at  a  range  of  only  fifty 
yards.  The  Japanese  used  no  torpedoes.  It  is  even  said  that,  by  a  mis- 
take, they  had  sailed  without  a  supply  of  these  weapons.  Nor  was  the  ram 
used  anywhere.  Once  or  twice  a  Chinese  ship  tried  to  run  down  a  Japanese, 
but  the  swifter  and  handier  vessels  of  Ito's  squadron  easily  avoided  all 
such  attacks.  The  Yalu  fight  was  from  first  to  last  an  artillery  battle. 

And  the  end  of  it  came  somewhat  unexpectedly.  The  Chen  Yuen  and 
the  Ting  Yuen  were  both  running  short  of  ammunition.  The  latter  had 
been  hit  more  than  four  hundred  times  without  her  armour  being  pierced, 
and  the  former  at  least  as  often.  One  of  the  Chen  Yuens  heavy  guns  had 
its  mountings  damaged,  but  otherwise  she  was  yet  serviceable.  Still,  she 
had  been  severely  battered,  had  lost  a  great  part  of  her  crew,  and  her  slow 
fire  must  have  told  the  Japanese  that  she  was  economizing  her  ammunition, 
which  was  now  all  solid  shot.  But  about  half-past  five  Ito  signalled  to  his 

fleet  to  retire.  The  two  Chinese  ironclads  followed  them  for 
The  End  of  the  ,  ,.  .,  ..  .  ,  r  ,  . 

Battle  a  couple  of  miles,  sending  an  occasional  shot  after  them  ;  then 

the  Japanese  main  squadron  suddenly  circled  round  as  if  to 
renew  the  action,  and,  towards  six  o'clock,  there  was  a  brisk  exchange  of 
fire  at  long  range.  When  Ito  again  ceased  fire,  the  Chen  Yuen  had  just 
three  projectiles  left  for  her  heavy  guns.  If  he  had  kept  on  for  a  few 
minutes  longer  the  two  Chinese  ships  would  have  been  at  his  mercy. 

Just    why    Ito    retired    has    never    been    clearly    explained.      Probably 

exhaustion  of  his  crew  and  the  perils  of  a  battle  at  night  with  such  antag- 

Lessons  from       onists  had  much  to  do  with  it.    The  next  morning  the  Chinese 

the  Yalu  fleet  had  disappeared.      It  had  lost  four  ships  in  the  fight,  two 

had  taken  to  flight,  and  one  ran  ashore  after  the  battle  and  was 
blown  up.  Two  of  the  Japanese  ships  were  badly  damaged,  but  none  were 
lost,  while  their  losses  in  killed  and  wounded  were  much  less  than  those  of 
the  Chinese.  An  important  lesson  from  the  battle  was  the  danger  of  too 
much  wood-work  in  ironclad  ships,  and  another  was  the  great  value  in  naval 
warfare  of  rapid-firing  guns.  But  the  most  remarkable  characteristic  of 
the  battle  of  the  Yalu  was  that  it  took  place  between  two  nations  which, 
had  the  war  broken  out  forty  years  earlier,  would  have  done  their  fighting 

with  fleets  of  junks  and  weapons  a  century  old. 

Captuce  of  Wei  .     T  '  a  \  «  i 

HaiWei  I*1  January,  1895,  tne  Japanese  fleet  advanced  against  the 

strongly  fortified  stronghold  of  Wei  Hai  Wei,  on  the  northern 

coast  of  China.     Here  a  force  of  25,000  men  was  landed  successfully,  and 


THE  RISE  OF  JAPAN  AND  THE  DECLINE  OF  CHINA  321 

attacked  the  fort  in  the  rear,  quickly  capturing  its  landward  defences. 
The  stronghold  was  thereupon  abandoned  by  its  garrison  and  occupied  by 
the  Japanese.  The  Chinese  fleet  lay  in  the  harbor,  and  surrendered  to 
the  Japanese  after  several  ships  had  been  sunk  by  torpedo  boats. 

China  was  now  in  a  perilous  position.  Its  fleet  was  lost,  its  coast 
strongholds  of  Port  Arthur  and  Wei  Hai  Wei  were  held  by  the  enemy, 
and  its  capital  city  was  threatened  from  the  latter  place  and  by  the  army 
north  of  the  Great  Wall.  A  continuation  of  the  war  promised  to  bring 
about  the  complete  conquest  of  the  Chinese  empire,  and  Li  Hung  Chang, 
who  had  been  degraded  from  his  official  rank  in  consequence  of  the  disasters 
to  the  army,  was,  now  restored  to  all  his  honors  and  sent  to  Japan  to  sue  for 
peace.  In  the  treaty  obtained  China  was  compelled  to  acknowledge  the 

independence  of  Corea,  to  cede  to  Japan  the   island  of  For- 

,      ,       T->  ,  11  r  *  T         i        •       The  Treaty  of 

mosa  and   the  Pescadores  group,  and  that  part  of  Manchuria       peace    * 

occupied  by  the  Japanese  army,  including  Port  Arthur,  also  to 
pay  an  indemnity  of  300,000,000  taels   and  open   seven  new  treaty  ports. 
This  treaty  was  not  fully  carried  out.     The   Russian,  British,  and   French 
ministers  forced  Japan,  under  threat  of  war,   to  give   up   her   claim  to   the 
Liau  Tung  peninsula  and  Port  Arthur. 

The  story  of  China  during  the  few  remaining  years  of  the  century  may 
be  briefly  told.     The  evidence  of  its  weakness  yielded  by  the  war  with  Japan 
was  quickly  taken  advantage  of  by  the  great  powers  of  Europe,    The  impending 
and  China  was  in  danger  of  going  to  pieces  under  their  attacks,       Partition  of 
which  grew  so  decided  and  ominous  that  rumors  of  a  partition      china 
between  these  powers  of  the  most  ancient  and  populous  empire  of  the  world 
filled  the  air. 

In  1898  decided  steps  in  this  direction  were  taken.  Russia  obtained  a 
lease  for  ninety-nine  years  of  Port  Arthur  and  Talien  WTan,  and  is  at 
present  in  practical  possession  of  Manchuria,  through  which  a  railroad  is  to 
be  built  connecting  with  the  Trans-Siberian  road,  while  Port  Arthur  affords 
her  an  ice-free  harbor  for  her  Pacific  fleet.  Great  Britain,  jealous  of  this 
movement  on  the  part  of  Russia,  forced  from  the  unwilling  hands  of  China 
the  port  of  Wei  Hai  Wei,  and  Germany  demanded  and  obtained  the  cession 
of  a  port  at  Kiau  Chun,  farther  down  the  coast.  France,  not  to  be  outdone 
by  her  Neighbors,  gained  concessions  of  territory  in  the  south,  adjoining  her 
Indo-China  possessions,  and  Italy,  last  of  all,  came  into  the  Eastern  market 
for  a  share  of  the  nearly  defunct  empire. 

How  far  this  will  go  it  is  not  easy  to  say.     The  nations    A^alac.eA. 

}»  Revolution 

are  settling  on  China  like  vultures  on  a  carcass,  and  perhaps 

may  tear   the    antique    commonwealth   to    pieces  between   them.      Within 


322  THE  RISE  OF  JAPAN  AND  THE  DECLINE  OF  CHINA 

the  empire  itself  revolutionary  changes  have  taken  place,  the  dowager 
empress  having  first  deprived  the  emperor  of  all  power  and  then  en- 
forced his  abdication,  while  Japan,  the  late  enemy  of  China,  is  now 
looked  to  for  its  defence,  and  Count  Ito  has  been  asked  to  become  its 
premier. 

Meanwhile  one  important  result  has  come  from  the  recent  war.  Li 
Hung  Chang  and  the  other  progressive  statesmen  of  the  empire,  who  have 
long  been  convinced  that  the  only  hope  of  China  lies  in  its  being  thrown 
open  to  Western  science  and  art,  have  now  become  able  to  carry  out  their 
plans,  the  conservative  opposition  having  seriously  broken  down.  The 
result  of  this  is  seen  in  a  dozen  directions.  Railroads,  long  almost  com- 
pletely forbidden,  have  now  gained  free  "  right  of  way,"  and 
before  many  years  promise  to  traverse  the  country  far  and 
wide.  Steamers  plough  their  way  for  a  thousand  miles  up 
the  Yang-tse-Kiang  ;  engineers  are  busy  exploiting  the  coal  and  iron  mines 
of  the  Flowery  Kingdom  ;  great  factories,  equipped  with  the  best  modern 
machinery,  are  springing  up  in  the  foreign  settlements  ;  foreign  books  are 
being  translated  and  read  ;  and  the  emperor  and  the  dowager  empress  have 
even  gone  so  far  as  to  receive  foreign  ambassadors  in  public  audience  and 
on  a  footing  of  outward  equality  in  the  "  forbidden  city  "  of  Peking,  long  the 
sacredly  secluded  centre  of  an  empire  locked  against  the  outer  world. 

All  this  is  full  of  significance.  The  defeat  of  China  in  1895  mav  prove 
its  victory,  if  it  starts  it  upon  a  career  of  acceptance  of  Western  civilization 
which  shall,  before  the  twentieth  century  has  far  advanced,  raise  it  to  the 
level  of  Japan.  It  must  be  borne  in  mind  that  the  extraordinary  progress  of 
the  island  empire  has  been  made  within  about  forty  years.  China  is  a  larger 
body  and  in  consequence  less  easy  to  move,  but  its  people  are  innately 
What  the  Fu-  practical  and  the  pressure  of  circumstances  is  forcing  them 
tureMay  forward.  Within  the  next  half  century  this  great  empire, 
ring  to  China  Despite  ;ts  thousands  of  years  of  unchanging  conditions,  may 
take  a  wonderful  bound  in  advance,  and  come  up  to  Japan  in  the  race  of 
political  and  industrial  development.  In  such  a  case  all  talk  of  the  parti- 
tion of  China  must  cease,  and  it  will  take  its  place  among  the  greatest 
powers  of  the  world. 


CHAPTER   XXI. 

The  Era  of  Colonies. 

SINCE  civilization  began  nations  have  endeavored  to  extend  their 
dominions,  not  alone  by  adding  to  their  territory  by  the  conquest  of 
adjoining  countries,  but  also  by  sending  out  their  excess  population 
to  distant  regions  and  founding  colonies  that  served  as  aids  to  and  feeders 
of  the  parent  state.  In  the  ancient  world  the  active  commercial  nations, 
Phoenicia  and  Greece,  were  alert  in  this  direction,  some  of  their  colonies, — • 
Carthage,  for  instance, — becoming  powerful  enough  to  gain  the  status  of 
independent  states.  In  modern  times  the  colonial  era  began  with  the  dis- 
covery of  America  in  1492  and  the  circumnavigation  of  Africa  immediately 
afterwards.  Spain  and  Portugal,  the  leaders  in  enterprise  at  that  period, 
were  quick  to  take  advantage  of  their  discoveries,  while  France,  Great  Bri- 
tain and  Holland  came  into  the  field  as  founders  of  colonies  at  a  later  date. 
At  the  opening  of  the  nineteenth  century  Spain  and  Portugal  still  held 
the  great  dominions  they  had  won.  They  divided  between  them  the  conti- 
nent of  South  America,  while  Spain  held  a  large  section  of  North  America, 
embracing  the  whole  continent  south  of  Canada  and  west  of  the  Mississippi 
River,  together  with  the  peninsula  of  Florida.  Portugal  held,  in  addition 

to  Brazil,  large  territories  in  east  and  west  Africa  and   minor 

i          ,  A  it  .    .  .          Progress  in 

possessions     elsewhere.      As    regards     the     remaining    active       colonization 

colonizing  nations, — Great  Britain,  France,  and  Holland, — 
some  striking  transformations  had  taken  place.  Great  Britain,  while 
late  to  come  into  the  field  of  colonization,  had -shown  remarkable  activity 
and  aggressiveness  in  this  direction,  robbing  Holland  of  her  settlement  on 
the  Atlantic  coast  of  America,  and  depriving  France  of  her  great  colonial 
possessions  in  the  east  and  the  west. 

France  had  shown  a  remarkable  activity  in  colonization.      In   the  east 
she  gained  a  strong  foothold  in  India,  which  promised  to  expand  to  imperial 
dimensions.     In  the  west  she  had  settled  Canada,  had  planted  Frenc|,  Activity 
military  posts   along  the  great  Mississippi   River  and   claimed      in  Founding 
the  vast   territory  beyond,  and  was   extending   into   the  Ohio      Colonies 
Valley,  while  the  British  still  confined  themselves  to  a  narrow  strip  along  the 
Atlantic  coast.     The  war  which  broke  out  between  the  English  and  French 

323 


324  THE  ERA  OF  COLONIES 

colonists  in  1754  put  an  end  to  this  grand  promise.  When  it  ended  France 
had  lost  all  her  possessions  in  America  and  India,  Great  Britain  becoming 
heir  to  the  whole  of  them  with  the  exception  of  the  territory  west  of  the 
Mississippi,  which  was  transferred  to  Spain.  As  regards  Holland,  she  had 
become  the  successor  of  Portugal  in  the  east,  holding  immensely  valuable 
islands  in  the  Malayan  archipelago. 

The  colonial  dominion  of  Great  Britain,  however,  suffered  one  great 
loss  before  the  end  of  the  eighteenth  century.  It  failed  to  regconize 
the  spirit  of  Anglo-Saxon  colonists,  and  by  its  tyranny  in  America  gave  rise 
to  an  insurrection  which  ended  in  the  freedom  of  its  American  colonies.  It 
still  held  Canada  and  many  of  the  West  India  Islands,  but  the  United  States 
was  free,  and  by  the  opening  of  the  nineteenth  century  had  fairly  begun 
its  remarkable  development. 

Such  was  the  condition  of  colonial  affairs  at  the  beginning  of  the  cen- 
tury with  which  we  are  concerned.  Spain  and  Portugal  still  held  the  great- 
est colonial  dominions  upon  the  earth,  France  had  lost  nearly  the  whole  of 
her  colonies,  Holland  possessed  the  rich  spice  islands  of  the  eastern  seas, 
and  Great  Britain  was  just  entering  upon  that  activity  in  colonization  which 
forms  one  of  the  striking  features  of  nineteenth  century  progress. 

At  the  close  of  the  century  a  remarable  difference  appears.      Spain  had 

lost  practically  the  whole  of  her  vast  colonial  empire.     She  had  learned  no 

lesson  from  England's  experience  with  her  American  colonies, 

Spain's  Colo-        ,  ,&          ..          rf  ,  .  ..     , 

nial  Decline       but  maintained  a  policy  ot  tyranny  and  oppression  until  these 

far-extended  colonial  provinces  rose  in  arms  and  won  their 
independence  by  courage  and  endurance.  Her  great  domain  west  of  the 
Mississippi,  transferred  by  treaty  to  France,  was  purchased  by  the  United 
States.  Florida  was  sold  by  her  to  the  same  country,  and  by  the  end  of 
the  first  quarter  of  the  century  she  did  not  own  a  foot  of  land  on  the 
American  continent.  She  still  held  the  islands  of  Cuba  and  Porto  Rico 
in  the"  West  Indies,  but  her  oppressive  policy  yielded  the  same  result  there 
as  on  the  continent.  The  islanders  broke  into  rebellion,  the  United  States 
came  to  their  aid,  and  she  lost  these  islands  and  the  Philippine  Islands  in 
the  East.  At  the  end  of  the  century  all  she  held  were  the  Canary  Islands' 
and  some  small  possessions  elsewhere. 

Portugal  had  also  suffered  a  heavy  loss  in  her  colonial  dominions,  but 
in  a  very  different  manner.  The  invasion  of  the  home  state  by  Napoleon's 
armies  had  caused  the  king  and  his  court  to  set  sail  for  Brazil,  where  they 
established  an  independent  empire,  while  a  new  scion  of  the  family  of 
Braganza  took  Portugal  for  his  own.  Thus,  with  the  exception  of  Canada, 


THE  ERA  OF  COLONIES  325 

Guiana,  and  the  smaller  islands  of  the  West  Indies,  no  colonies  existed  in 
America  at  the  end  of  the  century,  all  the  former  colonies  having  become 
independent  republics. 

The  active  powers  in  colonization  within  the  nineteenth  century  were 
the  great  rivals  of  the  preceding  period,  Great  Britain  and  France,  though 
the  former  gained  decidedly  the  start,  and  its  colonial  empire   TheCojonia| 
to-day  surpasses  that  of  any  other  nation  of  mankind.      It  is      Development 
so  enormous,  in  fact,  as  to  dwarf  the  parent  kingdom,  which       of  Great 
is  related  to  its  colonial  dominion,  so  far  as  comparative  size 
is  concerned,  as  the  small  brain  of  the  elephant  is  related  to  its  great  body. 

Other  powers,  not  heard  of  as  colonizers  in  the  past,  have  recently 
come  into  this  field,  though  too  late  to  obtain  any  of  the  great  prizes. 
These  are  Germany  and  Italy,  the  latter  to  a  small  extent.  But  there  is  a 
great  power  still  to  name,  which  in  its  way  stands  as  a  rival  to  Great  Britain, 
the  empire  of  Russia,  whose  acquisitions  in  Asia  have  grown  enormous  in 
extent.  These  are  not  colonies  in  the  ordinary  sense,  but  rather  results  of 

the  expansion  of  an  empire   through  warlike   acroression,  but 

i       •    i   •        u  f      u        u-        ,-u  1        Other  Coloniz- 

they  are  colonial  in  the  sense  ot  absorbing  the  excess  popula-      ing  Powers 

tion  of  European  Russia.     The  great  territory  of  Siberia  was 
gained  by  Russia  before  the  nineteenth  century,  but  within   recent  years  its 
dominion  in  Asia  has  greatly  increased,  and  it  is  not  easy  to  tell  just  when 
and  where  it  will  end. 

With  this  preliminary  review  we  may  proceed   to   consider  the  history 
of  colonization  within  the  century.     And  first  we  must  take  up  the  results 
of  the  colonial  enterprise  of  Great  Britain,  as  much  the  most  important  of 
the  whole.      Of  this  story  we  have  already  described  some  of  the  leading 
features.     A  chapter  has  been  given  to  the  story  of  the  Indian  empire  of 
Great  Britain,  far  the   largest  of  her  colonial    possessions,  and  anotbe*  *•« 
iiat  of  South  Africa.      In  addition  to  Hindostan,  in  which  the    Growth  of  the 
dominion  of  Great  Britain  now  extends  to  Afghanistan  and       British 
Jhibet  in  the  north,  the  British  colony  now  includes  Burmah      Colonies 
and  the  west-coast  region  of  Indo-China,  with  the  Straits  Settlements  in  the 
Malay  peninsula,  and  the  island  of  Ceylon,  acquired  in  1802  from  Holland. 

In  the  eastern  seas  Great  Britain  possesses  another  colony  of  vast 
dimensions,  the  continental  island  of  Australia,  which,  with  its  area  of  nearly 
3,000,000  square  miles,  is  three-fourths  the  size  of  Europe.  The  first 
British  settlement  was  made  here  in  1788,  at  Port  Jackson,  the  site  of  the 
present  thriving  city  of  Sydney,  and  the  island  was  long  maintained  as  a 
penal  settlement,  convicts  being  sent  there  as  late  as  1868.  It  was  the  dis- 
covery of  gold  in  1851  to  which  Australia  owed  its  great  progress.  The 

18 


326  THE  ERA  OF  COLONIES 

incitement  of  the  yellow  metal  drew  the  enterprising  thither  by  thousands, 

until  the  population  of  the  colony  is  now  more  than  3,000.000, 
Australia  and  .     .  ' 

New  Zealand  anc*  ls  growing  at  a  rapid  rate,  it  having  developed  other 
valuable  resources  besides  that  of  gold.  Of  its  cities,  Mel- 
bourne, the  capital  of  Victoria,  has  more  than  300,000  population  ;  Sydney, 
the  capital  of  New  South  Wales,  probably  250,000,  while  there  are  other 
cities  of  rapid  growth.  Australia  is  the  one  important  British  colony 
obtained  without  a  war.  In  its  human  beings,  as  in  its  animals  generally, 
it  stood  at  a  low  level  of  development,  and  it  was  taken  possession  of 
without  a  protest  from  the  savage  inhabitants. 

The  same  cannot  be  said  of  the  inhabitants  of  New  Zealand,  an  impor- 
tant group  of  islands  lying  east  of  Australia,  which  was  acquired  by  Great 
Britain  as  a  colony  in  1840.  The  Maoris,  as  the  people  of  these  islands  call 
themselves,  are  of  the  bold  and  sturdy  Polynesian  race,  a  brave,  generous, 
and  warlike  people,  who  have  given  their  new  lords  and  masters  no  little 
trouble.  A  series  of  wars  with  the  natives  V-egan  in  1843  and  continued 
until  1869,  since  which  time  the  colony  has  enjoyed  peace.  It  can  have  no. 
more  trouble  with  the  Maoris,  since  there  are  said  to  be  no  more  Maoris. 
They  have  vanished  before  the  "white  man's  face."  At  present  this  colony 
is  one  of  the  most  advanced  politically  of  any  region  on  the  face  of  the 
earth,  so  far  as  attention  to  the  interests  of  the  masses  of  the  people  is  con- 
cerned, and  its  laws  and  regulations  offer  a  useful  object  lesson  to  the  remain- 
der of  the  world. 

In  addition  to  those  great  island  dominions  in  the  Pacific,  Great  Britain 

possessess  the  Fiji  Islands,  the  northern  part  of  Borneo,  and  a  large  section 

of  the  extensive  island  of   Papua  or  New  Guinea,  the  remainder  of  which  is 

held  by  Holland  and  Germany.     In  addition  there  are  various 

Other  British  ..  .  1-11  ,  r     A     •  T        1 

Colonies  coaling  stations  on    the    islands    and    coast  of  Asia.      In  the 

Mediterranean  its  possessions  are  Gibraltar,  Malta,  and  Cyprus, 
and  in  America  the  great  colony  of  Canada,  a  considerable  number  of  the 
islands  of  the  West  Indies,  and  the  districts  of  British' Honduras  and  British 
Guiana.  Of  these,  far  the  most  important  is  Canada,  to  which  a  chapter 
will  be  devoted  farther  on  in  our  work. 

We  have  here  to  deal  with  the  colonies  in  two  of  the  continents,  Asia 
and  Africa,  of  which  the  history  presents  certain  features  of  singularity. 
Though  known  from  the  most  ancient  times,  while  America  was  quite  un- 
known until  four  centuries  ago,  the  striking  fact  presents  itself  that  at  the 
beginning  of  the  nineteenth  century  the  continents  of  North  and  South 
America  were  fairly  well  known  from  coast  to  centre,  while  the  interior  of 
Asia  and  Africa  remained  in  great  part  unknown.  This  fact  in  regard  to 


THE  ERA  OF  COLONIES  337 

Asia  was  due  to  the  hostile  attitude  of  its  people,  which   rende'red  it  very 
dangerous  for  any  European    traveler  to  attempt  to  penetrate  its  interior. 
In  the  case  of  Africa  it  was  due  to  the  -inhospitality  of  nature,  which  had 
placed  the  most  serious  obstacles  in  the  way  of  those  who  sought    The  |nterior 
to  penetrate  beyond   the  coast  regions.      This  state  of  affairs       of  Africa 
continued  until    the   latter  half  of  the  century,  within   which       and  Asia 
period  there  has  been  a  remarkable  change  in  the  aspect  of  affairs,  both  con- 
tinents having  been  penetrated  in  all  directions  and  their  walls   of  isolation 
completely  broken  down. 

Africa  is  not    only  now  well  known,  but  the  penetration  of  its  interior 
has  been  followed  by  political  changes  of  the  most   revolutionary  character. 
It  presented  a  virgin  field  for  colonization,  of  which  the  land-hungry  nations 
of  Europe  hastened  to  avail  themselves,  dividing  up  the  continent  between 
them,    so   that,    by    the  end    of  the    century,    the  partition    of  Africa    was 
practically  complete.    It  is  one  of  the  most  remarkable  circumstances  in  the 
history  of  the    nineteenth  century  that  a  complete   continent 
remained  thus  until  late  in  the  history  of  the  world  to  serve  as      *n  Africa™" 
a  new  field  for  the  outpouring  of  the  nations.     The  occupation 
of  Africa  by  Europeans,  indeed,  began  earlier.     The  Arabs  had  held  the  sec- 
tion north  of  the  Sahara  for  many  centuries,  Portugal  claimed — but  scarcely 
occupied — large  sections  east  and  west,  and  the  Dutch  had  a  thriving  settle- 
ment in  the  south.     But  the  exploration  and  division  of  the  bulk  of  the  con- 
tinent waited  for  the  nineteenth  century,  and  the   greater   part   of  the  work 
of  partition  took  place  within  the  final  quarter  of  that  century. 

In  this  work  of  colonization  Great  Britain  was,  as  usual,  most  energetic 
and  successful,  and  to-day  the  possessions  and  protectorates  of  this  active 
kingdom  in  Africa  embrace  2,587,755  square  miles;  or,  if  we  add  Egypt  and 
the  Egyptian  Soudan — practically  British  territory — the  area  occupied  of 

claimed   amounts   to   2,087,755   square  miles.      France  comes 

.,',..  .  D  ..  ~  The  Partition 

next,  with  claims  covering  1,232,454  square  miles.      Germany      Of  Africa 

lays  claim  to  920,920  ;  Italy,  to  278,500  ;  Portugal,  to  735,304  ; 
Spain,  to  243,877  ;  the  Congo  Free  State,  to  900,000;  and  Turkey  (if  Egypt 
be  included),  to  798,738  square  miles.  The  parts  of  Africa  unoccupied  or 
unclaimed  by  Europeans  are  a  portion  of  the  Desert  of  Sahara,  which  no 
one  wants  ;  Abyssinia,  still  independent  though  in  danger  of  absorption  ; 
and  Liberia,  a  state  over  which  rests  the  shadow  of  protection  of  the 
United  States. 

Of  the  British  colonial  possessions  in  Africa  we  have  already  sufficiently 
described  that  in  the  south,  extending  now  from  Cape  Town  to  Lake  Tan- 
ganyika, and  forming  an  immense  area,  replete  with  natural  resources,  and 


328  THE  ERA  OF  COLONIES 

capable  of  sustaining  a  very  large  future  population.  On  the  east  coast  is 
another  large  acquisition,  British  East  Africa,  extending  north  to  Abyssinia 
and  the  Soudan  and  west  to  the  Congo  Free  State,  and  including  part  of 

the  great  Victoria  Nyanza.  Further  north  a  large  slice 
British  Colonies  ,  ,  ,  f  ~  ...  i  f  .  i  >.  1f  f 

in  Africa  nas    been    carved    out  of  Somahland,  facing    on    the  Gulf  of 

Aden.  The  remainder  of  this  section  of  Africa  is  claimed — 
though  very  feebly  held — by  Italy,  whose  possessions  include  Somaliland 
and  Eritrea,  a  coast  district  north  of  Abyssinia.  Great  Britain,  in  addition, 
lays  claim  to  Sierra  Leone  and  the  Ashantee  country  on  the  west  coast  and 
an  extensive  region  facing  on  the  Gulf  of  Guinea,  and  extending  far  back 
into  the  Soudan. 

Next  to  Great  Britain  in  activity  in  the  acquisition  of  African  territory 
comes  France,  which  within  the  recent  period  has  enormously  extended  its 
claims  to  territory  in  this  continent.  Of  these  the  most  difficult  in  acquire- 
ment was  Algeria,  on  the  Mediterranean,  which  France  first  invaded  in  1830, 
but  did  not  obtain  quiet  possession  of  for  many  years  and  then  only  at  the  cost 

of  long-  and  sanguinary  wars.      At  a  later  date  the  adjoining 

African  Colonies    ,,         .  \    ..        ,S         .    '         .  ,,     ,  ,       .  ,J  ,& 

of  France          Moorish   kingdom  of  Tunis  was  added,  and    since    then    the 

claims  of  France  have  been  extended  indefinitely  southward, 
to  include  the  greater  part  of  the  western  half  of  the  Sahara — the  Atlantic 
coast  district  of  the  Sahara  being  claimed  by  Spain.  Of  this  great  desert 
region  almost  the  whole  is  useless  to  any  nation,  and  France  holds  it  mainly 
as  a  connecting  link  between  her  possessions  in  Algeria  and  the  Soudan. 

French  Soudan  has  had  a  phenomenal  growth,  the  French  displaying  the 
same  enterprise  here  as  they  did  in  America  in  the  rapid  extension  of  their 
Canadian  province.  Claiming,  as  their  share  in  the  partition  of  Africa,  the 
Atlantic  coast  region  of  Senegal  and  an  extensive  district  facing  on  the  Gulf 
of  Guinea  and  the  South  Atlantic,  and  known  as  French  Congo,  they  have 
made  an  enormous  spread,  northward  from  the  latter,  westward  from  Sene- 
gal, and  southward  from  Algeria,  until  now  their  claims  cover  nearly  the 
whole  of  the  Soudan — a  vast  belt  of  territory  stretching  from  the  Atlantic 
nearly  across  the  continent  and  bordering  on  the  Egyptian  Soudan  in  the 
east.  The  French  claim,  indeed,  extended  as  far  as  the  Nile,  being  based 
on  Major  Marchand's  journey  to  the  river  in  1898.  But  the  English  con- 
quests in  that  region  barred  out  the  French  claim,  and  it  has  been  abandoned. 
In  addition  to  the  territories  here  named,  France  has  taken  possession  of  a 
portion  of  the  coast  region  of  Abyssinia,  between  the  Italian  and  the  British 
regions,  and  completely  shutting  out  that  ancient  kingdom  from  the  sea. 

The  latest  of  the  nations  to  develop  the  colonizing  spirit  were  Italy  and 
Germany.  We  have  described  Italy's  share  in  Africa.  Germany's  is  far 


THE  ERA  OF  COLONIES  329 

larger  and   more  imporant.      In   East  Africa  it   holds  a  large  and  valuable 
region   of   territory,   on   the    Zanzibar  coast,   between   British   East  Africa 
and  Portuguese     Mozambique,    and    extending   westward    to    Germanand 
Lake   Nyassa  and   Tanganyika    and    the   Congo   Free  State,       Italian 
and  northward  to   the  Victoria  Nyanza.      It  cuts  off  British       Colonies 
territory  from  an    extension    throughout  the  whole  length  of    Africa,    and 
if  Cecil    Rhodes'  Cairo  to  Cape  Town    Railway  is  ever  completed,   some 
hundreds  of  miles  of  it  will  have  to  run  through  German  territory. 

.  In  South  Africa  Germany  has  seized  upon  abroad  region  Jeft  unclaimed 
by  Great  Britain,  the  Atlantic  coast  section  of  Damaraland  and  Great 
Namaqualand,  and  also  an  extensive  section  on  the  right  of  the  Gulf  of 
Guinea,  stretching  inward  like  a  wedge  between  British  and  French  posses- 
sions in  this  region.  On  the  Gold  Coast  it  has  also  a  minor  territory,  lying 
between  British  Ashantee  and  French  Dahomey. 

The  broad  interior  of  the  continent,  the  mighty  plateau  region  watered 
by  the  great  Congo  River  and  its  innumerable  affluents,  first  traversed  by 

the    darinof    Stanley  not    many  years    in    the    past,  has    been 

,   .    &  3  >   •         r*  re  The  Congo 

erected  into  the  extensive  and  promising  Congo  Tree   State,       Free  state 

under  the  suzerainty  of  the  king  of   Belgium.      It  is  the    most 
populous  and  agriculturally  the  richest  section  of  Africa,  while    its   remark- 
able    extension    of     navigable    waters    give    uninterrupted    communication 
through  its  every  part.      It  has  probably  before  it  a  great  future. 

Off  the  east  coast  of  Africa  lies  the  great  island  of  Madagascar,  now  a 
French  territory.      France  has  had  military  posts  on  its  coast  for  more  than 
two  hundred  years,  and    in    1883    began    the    series    of  wars    The  French 
which   resulted  in  the  conquest  of  the   island.      The   principal       Conquest  of 
war  of  invasion  began  in  1895  an(i  ended  in  a  complete  over- 
throw of  the   native   government,  Madagascar  being  declared  a  French  col- 
ony in  June,  1896. 

Of  these  .European  possessions  in  Africa,  all  are  held  with  a  strong 
hand  except  those  of  Portugal,  which  unprogressive  state  may  soon  give  up 
all  claim  to  her  territories  of  Angola  and  Mozambique.  Great  Britain  and 
Germany  have  been  negotiating  with  Portugal  for  the  purchase  of  these  ter- 
ritories— to  be  divided  between  them.  As  one  part  of  the  bargain.  Great 
Britain-will  get  the  important  Delagoa  Bay,  and  definitely  shut  in  the  Boer 
Republic  from  the  sea.  Wars  .„  AfHca 

This  division  of  Africa  between  the  European    nations, 
with  the  subsequent  taking  possession  of  the  acquired    territories,  has  not 
been   accomplished    without    war    and    bloodshed  ;   England,    France,    and 
Italy  having  had  to  fight  hard  to  establish  their  claims.      In   only  two  sec- 


33o  THE  ERA  OF  COLONIES 

tions,  Abyssinia  and  the  Egyptian  Soudan,  have  the  natives  been  able  to 
drive  out  their  invaders,  and  the  wars  in  these  regions  call  for  some  fuller 
notice. 

The  first  war  in  Abyssinia  occurred  in  1867,  when  England,  irritated  by 
an  arbitrary  action  of  the  Emperor  Theodore,  declared  war  against  him, 
and  invaded  his  rocky  and  difficult  country.  The  war  ended  in  the  conquest 
of  Magdala  and  the  death  of  Theodore.  In  1889  Italy  aided  Menelek  in 
gaining  the  throne,  and  was  granted  the  large  district  of  Eritrea  on  the  Red 
Defeat  of  the  Sea,  with  a  nominal  protectorate  over  the  whole  kingdom. 
Italians  in  Subsequently  Menelek  repudiated  the  treaty,  and  in  1894  the 
Abyssinia  Italians  invaded  his  kingdom.  For  a  time  they  were  success- 
ful, but  in  March,  1896,  the  Italian  army  met  with  a  most  disastrous  defeat, 
and  in  the  treaty  that  followed  Italy  was  compelled  to  acknowledge  the 
complete  independence  of  Abyssinia.  It  was  the  one  case  in  Africa  in 
which  the  natives  were  able  to  hold  their  own  against  the  ambitious  nations 
of  Europe. 

In  Egypt  they  did  so  for  a  time,  and  a  brief  description  of  the  recent 
history  of  this  important  kingdom  seems  of  interest.  Egypt  broke  loose 
in  large  measure  from  the  rule  of  Turkey  during  the  reign  of  the  able  and 
ambitious  Mehemet  AH,  who  was  made  viceroy  in  1840  In  1876  the  inde- 
pendence of  Egypt  was  much  increased,  and  its  rulers  were  given  the  title 
of  khedive,  or  king.  The  powers  of  the  khedives  steadily  increased,  and  in 

1874-75  Ismail  Pasha  greatly  extended  the  Egyptian  terri- 
The  Expansion  «•*'•>  .  &  *  ,  /  ,, 

of  Egypt  torv>  annexing  the  boudan  as  far  as  Uarfur,  and  finally  to  the 

shores  of  the  lately  discovered  Victoria  Nyanza.  Egypt  thus 
embraced  the  valley  of  the  Nile  practically  to  its  source,  presenting  an 
aspect  of  immense  length  and  great  narrowness. 

Soon  after,  the  finances  of  the  country  became  so  involved  that  they 
were  placed  under  European  control,  and  the  growth  of  English  and  French 
influence  led  to  the'revolt  of  Arabi  Pasha  in  1879.  This  was  repressed  by 
Great  Britain,  which  bombarded  Alexandria  and  defeated  the  Egyptians, 
France  taking  no  part.  As  a  result  the  controlling  influence  of  France 
ended,  and  Great  Britain  became  the  practical  ruler  of  Egypt,  which  posi- 
tion she  still  maintains. 

In  1880  began  an  important  series  of  events.  A  Mohammedan  prophet 
arose  in  the  Soudan,  claiming  to  be  the  Mahdi,  a  Messiah  of  the  Mussulmans. 

A  laro-e  body  of  devoted  believers  soon  gathered  around  him, 
The  Rise  of  the  ,  ,  &  J  .  .  .  •  t_  j  i  r  • 

Mahdi  anc*  ne  se^-  UP  an  independent  sultanate  in  the  desert,  defeating 

four  Egyptian  expeditions  sent  against  him,  and  capturing  El 
Obeid,  the  chief  city  of  Kordofan  which  he  made  his  capital  in  1883. 


THE  ERA  OF  COLONIES  331 

Then  against  him  Great  Britain  dispatched  an  army  of  British  and  Egyp- 
tian soldiers,  under  an  English  leader  styled  in  Egypt  Hicks  Pasha.  These 
advanced  to  El  Obeid,  where  they  fell  into  an.  ambush  prepared  by  the 
Mahdists,  and,  after  a  desperate  struggle,  lasting  three  days,  were  almost  com- 
pletely annihilated,  scarcely  a  man  escaping  to  tell  the  disastrous  tale. 
"General  Hicks,"  said  a  newspaper  correspondent,  "charged  at  the  head  of 
staff.  They  galloped  towards  a  sheikh,  supposed  by  the  The  Massacre  of 
Egyptians  to  be  the  Mahdi.  Hicks  rushed  on  him  with  his  Hicks  Pasha 
sword  and  cut  his  face  and  arm  ;  this  man  had  on  a  Darfur  and  Hls  Army 
steel  mail-shirt.  Just  then  a  club  thrown  struck  General  Hicks  on  the  head 
and  unhorsed  him.  The  chargers  of  the  staff  were  speared  but  the  English 
officers  fought  on  foot  till  all  were  killed.  Hicks  was  the  last  to  die." 

Other  expeditions  of  Egyptians  troops  sent  against  Osman  Digma 
("  Osman  the  Ugly"),  the  lieutenant  of  the  Mahdi  in  the  Eastern  Soudan, 
met  with  a  similar  fate,  while  the  towns  of  Sinkat  and  Tokar  were  invested 
by  the  Mahdists.  To  relieve  these  towns  Baker  Pasha  advanced  with  a 
force  of  3,650  men.  There  was  no  more  daring  or  accomplished  officer  in 
the  British  army  than  Valentine  Baker,  but  his  expedition  met  with  .the 
same  fate  as  that  of  his  predecessor.  Advancing  into  the  desert  from  Trin- 
kitat,  a  town  some  distance  south  of  Suakim,  on  the  Red  Sea,  the  force 
was  met  by  a  body  of  Mahdists,  and  the  Egyptian  soldiers  at  once  broke 
into  a  panic  of  terror.  The  Mahdists  were  only  some  1,200  strong,  but 
they  surrounded  and  butchered  the  unresisting  Egyptians  in  a  frightful 
slaughter. 

"  Inside  the  square,"  said  an  eyewitness,  "  the  state  of  affairs  was  almost 
indescribable.  Cavalry,  infantry,  mules,  camels,  falling  baggage  and  dying 
men  were  crushed  into  a  struggling,  surging  mass.  The 
Egyptians  were  shrieking  madly,  hardly  attempting  to  run 
away,  but  trying  to  shelter  themselves  one  behind  another." 
"The  conduct  of  the  Egyptians  was  simply  disgraceful,"  said  another  officer. 
"Armed  with  rifle  and  bayonet,  they  allowed  themselves  to  be  slaughtered, 
without  an  effort  at  self-defence,  by  savages  inferior  to  them  in  numbers  and 
armed  only  with  spears  and  swords." 

Baker  and  his  staff  officers,  seeing  that  affairs  were  hopeless,  charged 
the  enemy  and  cut  their  way  through  to  the  shore,  but  of  the  total  force 
two-thirds  were  left  dead  or  wounded  on  the  field.  Such  was  the  "  massa- 
cre "  of  El  Teb,  which  was  followed  four  days  afterwards  by  the  capture  of 
Sinkat  and  slaughter  of  its  garrison.  This  butchery  was  soon  after  avenged. 
General  Graham  was  sent  from  Cairo  with  reinforcements  of  British  troops, 
which  advanced  on  Osman's  position,  and,  in  two  bloody  engagements  sub- 


332  THE  ERA  OF  COLONIES 

jected  him  to  disastrous  defeat.  The  last  victory  was  a  crushing  one,  the 
total  British  loss  being  about  200,  while,  of  the  Arab  loss,  the  killed  alone 
numbered  over  2,000. 

In  the  same  year  in  which  these  events  took  place  (1884)  General 
Charles  Gordon — Chinese  Gordon,  as  he  was  called,  from  his  memorable 
exploits  in  the  Flowery  Kingdom — advanced  by  the.  Nile  to  Khartoum,  the 
far-off  capital  of  the  Mohammedan  Soudan,  of  which  he  had 
Deen  governor-general  in  former  years.  His  purpose  was  to 
relieve  the  Egyptian  garrison  of  that  city — in  which  design 
he  failed.  In  fact,  the  Arabs  of  the  Soudan  flocked  in  such  multitudes  to 
the  standard  of  the  Mahdi  that  Khartoum  was  soon  cut  off  from  all  com- 
munication with  the  country  to  the  north,  and  Gordon  and  the  garrison 
were  left  in  a  position  of  dire  peril.  It  was  determined  to  send  an  expedi- 
tion to  his  relief,  and  this  was  organized  under  the  leadership  of  Lord 
Wolseley,  the  victor  in  the  Ashantee  and  Zulu  wars. 

The  expedition  was  divided  into  two  sections,  a  desert  column  which 
was  to  cross  a  sandy  stretch  of  land  with  the  aid  of  camels,  from  Korti  to 
Metamneh,  on  the  Nile,  thus  cutting  off  a  wide  loop  in  the  stream  ;  and  a 
river  column  for  whose  transportation  a  flotilla  of  800  whale  boats  was  sent 
out  from  England.     The  desert  column  found  its  route  strongly  disputed. 
On  the  7th  of  January,  1885,  it  was  attacked  by  the  Arabs  in 
*of  Gordon"6      overwhelming  force  and  fighting  with  the  ferocity  of  tigers, 
some  5,000  of  them  attacking  the   1,500  British  drawn  up  in 
square,  round  which  the  fanatical  Mahdists  raged  like  storm-driven  waves. 
The  peril  was  imminent.      Among  those  who  fell  on  the  British  side  was 
Colonel  Burnaby,  the  famous  traveler.     The  battle  was  a  remarkably  brief 
one,  the  impetuous  rush  of  the  Arabs  being  repulsed  in  about  five  minutes 
of  heroic  effort,  during  which  there  was  imminent  danger  of  their  penetrating 
the  square  and  making  an  end  of  the  British  troops.     As  it  was  the  Arabs  lost 
1,100  in  dead  and  a  large  number  of  wounded,  the  British 
less  than  "200  in  all.     A  few  days  afterwards  the  Arabs  at- 
tacked again,  but  as  before  were   repulsed  with   heavy  loss. 
On   the    igth   of  January  the    river  was    reached,   and    the   weary  troops 
bivouacked  on  its  banks. 

Here  they  were  met  by  four  steamers  which  Gordon  had  sent  down 
the  Nile,  after  plating  their  hulls  with  iron  as  a  protection  against  Arab 
bullets.  Various  circumstances  now  caused  delay,  and  several  days  passed 
before  General  Wilson,  in  command  of  the  expedition,  felt  it  safe  to 
advance  on  Khartoum.  At  length,  on  January  24th,  two  of  the  steamers, 
with  a  small  force  of  troops,  set  out  up  the  river,  but  met  with  so  many 


THE  ERA  OF  COLONIES  333 

obstacles  that  it  was  the  28th  before  they  came  within  sight  of  the  distant 
towers  of  Khartoum.  From  the  bank  came  a  shout  to  the  effect  that 
Khartoum  had  been  taken  and  Gordon  killed  two  days  before.  As  they 
drew  nearer  there  came  evidence  that  the  announcement  was  true.  No 
British  flag  was  seen  flying  ;  not  a  shot  came  from  the  shore  in  aid  of  the 
steamers.  Masses  of  the  enemy  could  be  seen  in  all  directions.  A  storm 
of  musketry  beat  like  hail  on  the  iron  sides  of  the  boats.  Wilson,  believing 
the  attempt  hopeless,  gave  the  order  to  turn  and  run  at  full  speed  down  the 
river.  They  did  so  amid  a  rattle  of  bullets  and  bursting  of  shells  from  the 
artillery  of  the  enemy. 

The  news  they  brought  was  true.  The  gallant  Gordon  was  indeed 
dead.  The  exact  events  that  took  place  are  not  known.  Some  attributed 
the  fall  of  the  town  to  the  act  of  a  traitor,  some  to  the  storming  of  the 
gates.  It  does  not  matter  now;  it  is  enough  to  know  that 
the  famous  Christian  soldier  had  been  killed  with  all  his 
men — about  4,000  persons  being  slaughtered,  in  a  massacre 
that  continued  for  six  hours.  That  was  the  end  of  it.  The  British  soon  after 
withdrew  and  left  Khartoum  and  the  Soudan  in  the  undisputed  possession 
of  the  Arabs.  The  Mahdi  had  been  victorious,  though  he  did  not  live  long 
to  enjoy  his  triumph,  he  dying  some  months  later. 

And  so  matters  were  left  for  nearly  twelve  years,  when  the  British 
government,  having  arranged  affairs  in  Egypt  to  its  liking,  and  put  the 
country  in  a  prosperous  condition,  decided  to  attempt  the  reconquest  of 
the  Soudan,  and  avenge  the  slaughtered  Gordon.  An  expedition  was  sent 
out  in  1896,  which  captured  Dongola  in  September  and  defeated  the  der- 
vish force  in  several  engagements.  The  progress  continued,  slowly  but 
surely,  up  the  Nile.  In  1897  other  advantages  were  gained.  But  it  was 
not  until  1898  that  the  Anglo-Egyptian  force,  under  Sir  Herbert  Kitchener, 
known  under  his  Egyptian  title  of  the  Sirdar,  reached  the  vicinity  of 
Khartoum.  The  Egyptian  soldiers  under  him  were  of  other  _ 

*>'  r  The  Advance  of 

stuff  than  those  commanded  by  Baker  Pasha.      From  a  mob     the  British 

with  arms  in  hand  they  had  been  drilled  into  brave  and  steady     and  Recapture 
......  ,    ,  ,  of  the  Soudan 

soldiers,  quite  capable  of  giving  a  good  account  of  themselves. 

At  Onidurman,  near  Khartoum,  the  dervishes  were  met  in  force  and  a 
fierce  and  final  battle  was  fought.  The  Arabs  suffered  a  crushing  defeat, 
losing  more  than  10,000  men,  while  the  British  loss  was  only  about  200. 
This  brilliant  victory  ended  the  war  on  the  Nile.  The  fight  was  taken  out 
of  the  Arabs.  The  Soudan  was  restored  to  Egypt  by  British  arms,  four- 
teen years  after  it  had  been  lost  to  the  Mahdi. 


334  THE  ERA  OF  COLONIES 

Asia  has  been  invaded  by  the  nations  of  civilization  almost  as  actively 
as  Africa,  and  to-day,  aside  from  the  Chinese  and  Japanese  Empires,  far  the 
greater  part  of  that  vast  continent  is  under  foreign  control,  the  only  impor- 
tant independent  sections  being  Turkey,  Arabia,  Persia,  and  Afghanistan. 
As  matters  now  look,  all  of  these,  China  included,  before  the  twentieth  cen- 
tury is  very  old  may  be  in  European  hands,  and  the  partition 
The  Partition  c  \  •  \  i\  i  r  Ar  •  TU  «.• 

of  Asia  °*  Asia  become  as  complete  as  that  of  Africa,      1  he   nations 

active  in  this  work  have  been  Great  Britain,  Russia,  and 
France,  while  Holland  is  in  possession  of  Java,  Sumatra,  and  others  of  the 
valuable  spice  islands  of  the  eastern  seas.  Of  the  enterprise  of  Great  Bri- 
tain in  extending  her  colonial  dominion  in  Hindostan  and  Burmah  we  have 
already  spoken.  The  enterprise  of  France  here  demands  attention. 

France  has  always  been  remarkably  active  in  her  colonizing  enterprises. 
In  America  she  surpassed  Great   Britain  in  the  rapid  extension  of  her  do- 
minion, though  she  fell  far  behind  in  the  solidity  of  her  settlements.     It  has 
been  the  same  in  Africa.     France  has  spread  out  with  extraordinary  rapidity 
over  the  Soudan,  while  England  has  moved  much  more  slowly 
British  Meth-   but  far  more  surely.      The  enterprises  of  the  one  are  brilliant, 
odsof  Colon-    those  of  the  other  are  solid,  and  it  is  the  firmness  with  which 
the  Anglo-Saxon   race    takes    hold    that    makes   it  to-day  the 
dominant  power  on  the  earth.      The  French  have  the  faculty  of  assimilating 
themselves  with  foreign  peoples,  accepting  their  manners  and   customs  and 
becoming  their  friends  and  allies.      The  British,  on  the  contrary,  are  too  apt 
to   treat   their  colonial  subjects  as   inferior  beings,  but  they  combine  their 
haughtiness  with  justice,  and  win  respect  at  the  same  time  as  they  inspire 
distrust  and  fear. 

The  colonizing  enterprise  of  France  in  Asia,  after  the  French  had  been 
ousted  from  India  by  Great  Britain,  directed  itself  to  the  peninsula  of  Indo- 
China.     This  was  the  only  region  of .  the  Asiatic   coast  land  which  was  at 
once  safe  to  meddle  with  and  worth  the  cost  and   trouble.      In  1789  the  em- 
peror   of  Annam    accepted   French    aid   in  the    conquest  of  the    adjoining 
Operations  of      states  of  Cochin  China  and  Tcnquin.     The  wedge  of  French 
France  in          influence,  thus  entered,  was  not  removed.    Missionaries  sought 
lndo=China       those   far_off    realmS|   and   in    time  found  themselves   cruelly 
treated  by  the  natives.      As  usual  in  such  cases,  this  formed  a  pretext  for  in- 
vasion and  annexation,  and  in  1862  a  portion  of  Cochin  China  was  seized  upon 
by  France,  the  remainder  being  annexed  in   1867.    Meanwhile,  in    1863,  the 
"  protection"  of  France  was  extended  over  the  neighboring  state  of  Cambodia. 
North  of  Cochin  China  lies  Annam,  and   farther  north,  bordering  on 
China,  is  the  province  of  Tonquin,  inhabited  largely  by  Chinese.     The  four 


THE  ERA  OF  COLONIES  335 

-states  mentioned  constitiK>.  the  eastern  half  of  Indo-China.  The  western 
portion  is  formed  by  the  kingdom  of  Burrnah,  now  a  British  possession. 
Between  these  lies  the  contracted  kingdom  of  Siam,  the  only  portion  of  the 
peninsula  that  retains  its  independence. 

The  attention  of  France  was  next  directed  to  Tonquin,  the  northern 
province  of  the  Annamite  Empire,  which  was  invaded  in  1873,  a°d  its  capi- 
tal city,  Hanoi,  captured.  Here  the  French  found  foeman  worthy  of  their 
steel.  After  the  suppression  of  the  Taiping  rebellion  in 
China  certain  bands  of  the  rebels  took  refuge  in  Tonquin, 


where  they  won  themselves  a  new  home  by  force  of  arms,  and 
in  1868  held  the  valley  of  the  Red  River  as  far  south  as  Hanoi.  These, 
known  as  the  "  Black  Flags,"  were  bold,  restless,  daring  desperadoes,  who 
made  the  conquest  of  the  country  a  difficult  task  for  the  French.  By  their 
aid  the  invading  French  were  driven  from  Hanoi  and  forced  back  in  defeat. 
The  French  resumed  their  work  of  conquest  in  1882,  again  taking  the 
city  of  Hanoi,  and  in  December,  1883,  a  strong  expedition  advanced  up  the 

Red   River  against  the  stronghold  of  Sontay,  which,  with  the 

.    u  i       •          n        XT'    1  1  11     A  T  TheSeigeof 

neighboring   Bac  JNmh,  was  looked   upon,  in  a  military  sense,       sontay 

as  the  key  to  Tonquin.  The  enterprise  seemed  a  desperate 
one,  the  expeditionary  force  consisting  of  but  6,000  soldiers  and  1,350 
coolies,  while  behind  the  strong  works  of  the  place  were  25,000  armed  men, 
of  whom  10,000  were  composed  of  the  valiant  Black  Flags.  But  cannon 
served  the  place  of  men.  The  river  defences  were  battered  down  and 
preparations  made  to  storm  the  citadel.  During  the  succeeding  night, 
however,  the  French  ran  imminent  risk  of  a  disastrous  repulse.  At  one 
o'clock  at  night,  when  all  but  the  sentries  were  locked  in  slumber,  a  sudden 
shower  of  rockets  was  poured  on  the  thatched  roofs  of  the  huts  in  which 
the  soldiers  lay  asleep,  and  with  savage  yells  the  Chinese  rushed  from  their 
gates  and  into  the  heart  of  the  camp,  firing  briskly  as  they  came.  The 
French  troops,  fatigued  with  the  hard  fighting  of  the  preceding  day,  and 
demoralized  by  the  suddenness  of  the  attack  and  the  pluck  A  N.  M  Attack 
and  persistent  energy  of  the  assailants,  were  thrown  almost  into 
panic,  and  were  ready  to  give  way  when  the  Chinese  trumpets  sounded  the 
recall  and  the  enemy  drew  off.  As  it  appeared  afterwards  this  attack  was 
made  by  only  300  men.  It  would  undoubtedly  have  stampeded  the 
invading  forces  but  for  the  vigilance  of  the  sentinels. 

On  the  next  day,  December  i6th,  the  fort  was  stormed,  and  taken  after 
a  desperate  resistance.  There  is  but  one  incident  of  the  assault  that  we 
need  relate.  As  the  French  rushed  across  the  bridge  that  spanned  the  wide 
ditch  and  approached  the  gate  of  the  citadel,  there  was  seen  an  instance  of 


336  THE  ERA  OF  COLONIES 

cool  and  devoted  bravery  hardly  excelled  by  that  which  was  displayed  by  the 

famous  "  captain  of  the  gate  "  who  held  the  Tiber  bridge  against  the  Tuscan 

host.   There,  told  off  to  guard  the  narrow  passage  between  the  stockade  and 

the  wall,  stood  a  gallant  Black  Flag  soldier.     His  Winchester  repeating  rifle 

was  in  his  hand,  its  magazine  rilled  with  cartridges.    Although 

the  Citadef0    na^  t^ie  Frencn  force  were  at  the  gate,  he  quailed  not.     Shot 

after   shot  he  fired,  deliberately  and  calmly,  and   each  bullet 

found  its  billet.      Down   went  brave  Captain  Mehl,  leader  of    the  Foreign 

Legion,  with  a  ball  through  his  heart,  and  other  attackers  were  slain  ;  and 

when  the  stormers  rushed  in  at  last  the  heroic  Black  Flag,  true  to  his  trust, 

died  with  his  face  to  the  foe,  as  a  soldier  should  die.      The  French,  quick  to 

recognize  bravery  either  in  friend  or  enemy,  buried  him  with  military  honors 

when  the  day's  fight  was  over,  at  the  gate  which  he  defended  so  well. 

The  capture  of  this  town,  followed  by  that  of  Bac-Ninh,  which  was 
similarly  taken  by  storm,  completed  the  work  of  conquest  and  firmly  estab- 
lished the  French  in  their  occupation  of  Tonquin. 

They  had,  however,  still  the  Chinese  to  deal  with.  China  claimed  a 
suzerainty  over  this  region  and  protested  against  the  French  invasion,  and 
in  1885  went  to  war  for  the  expulsion  of  the  foreign  conquerors.  During 
the  previous  year  the  Black  Flags  had  engaged  in  murderous  raids  on  the 

French    mission    stations,    in    which    they    massacred    nearly 
France  in  Pos-  .         ^ .     .     .  T         ,  •  i     j-+i  •  i  •  i 

session  io,ooo  native  Christians.      In  the  war  with  China,  they,  with 

other  Chinese  troops,  held  the  passes  above  Tuyen-Kivan  for 

nearly  a  month  against  repeated'  assaults  by  the   French,  and  were  still  in 

possession   of   their  posts  when   peace   was  declared.      China   had  yielded 

the  country  to  France.  % 

In  1895  France  gained  the  right  to  extend  a  railway  from  Annam  into 
China,  a  concession  which  was  protested  against  by  Great  Britain,  then  in 
possession  of  the  adjoining  province.  In  1896  a  treaty  was  made  between 
these  two  powers,  which  fixed  the  Mekong  or  Cambodia  River  as  their  divid- 
ing line.  As  a  result  those  powers  now  hold  all  of  Indo-China  except  the 
much  diminished  kingdom  of  Siam.  France  has  permitted  the  form  of 
the  old  government  to  continue,  the  Emperor  of  Annam  still  reigning — 
though  he  does  not  rule,  since  the  real  power  is  in  the  hands  of  the  French 
governor-general  at  Hanoi. 

While  Great  Britain  and  France  were  thus  establishing  themselves  in 
the  south,  Russia  was  engaged  in  the  conquest  of  the  north  and  centre 
of  the  continent.  The  immense  province  of  Siberia,  crossing  the  whole 
width  of  the  continent  in  the  north,  was  acquired  by  Russia  in  the  seven- 
teenth century,  after  which  the  progress  of  Russia  in  Asia  ceased  until  the 


THE  ERA  OF  COLONIES  337 

nineteenth   century,  within  which  the  territory  of  the  Muscovite  empire  in 

that  continent  has  been  very  greatly  extended.      Two  provinces  were  wrested 

from   Persia  in   1828,  as  the  prize  of  a  victorious  war,  and  in 

1859  tne  conquest  of  the  region  of  the  Caucasus  was  completed   T!je  A?vfnce  °f 

by  the  capture  of  the  hreoic  Schamyl.    In   1858  the  left  bank 

of  the  great  Amur  River  was  gained  by  treaty  with  China,  after  having 

been  occupied  by  force. 

Soon  after  this  period,  Russia  began  the  work  of  conquest  in  the  region 
of  Turkestan,  that  long-mysterious  section  of  Central  Asia,  inhabited  in 
part  by  fierce  desert  nomades,  who  for  centuries  made  Persia  the  spoil  of 
their  devastating  raids,  and  in  part  by  intolerant  settled  tribes,  among 
whom  no  Christian  dared  venture  except  at  risk  of  his  life.  It  remained  in 
great  measure  a  terra  incognita  until  the  Russians  forced  their  way  into  it 
arms  in  hand. 

The  southern  border  of  Siberia  was  gradually  extended  downward 
over  the  great  region  of  the  Mongolian  steppes  until  the  northern  limits 
of  Turkestan  were  reached,  and  in  1864  Russia  invaded  this  -region  sub- 
duing the  oasis  of  Tashkend  after  a  fierce  war.  In  1868  the  march  of 
invasion  reached  Bokhara,  and  in  1873  tne  oasis  of  Khiva 
was  conquered  and  annexed.  In  1875-76  Khokand  was  con- 
quered  after  a  fierce  war,  and  annexed  to  Russia.  This 
completed  the  acquisition  of  the  fertile  provinces  of  Turkestan,  but  the 
fierce  nomades  of  the  desert  remained  unsubdued,  and  the  oasis  of  Merv 
and  the  country  of  the  warlike  Tekke  Turcomans  were  still  to  conquer. 
This,  which  was  accomplished  in  1 880-81,  merits  a  fuller  description. 

A  broad  belt  of  desert  lands  stretches  across  the  continent  of  Asia 
from  Arabia,  in  the  southwest,  to  the  rainless  highlands  of  Gobi,  or  Shamo, 
in  the  far  east.  This  desert  zone  is  here  and  there  broken  by  a  tract  of 
steppe  land  that  is  co\  ered  with  grass  for  a  portion  of  the  year,  while  more 
rarely  a  large  oasis  is  formed  where  the  rivers  and  streams,  descending 
from  a  mountain  range,  supply  water  to  a  fertile  region,  before  losing  them- 
selves in  the  sands  of  the  desert  beyond. 

Eastward  of  the  Caspian,  and  south  of  the  Aral,  much  of  the  waste 
land  is  a.  salt  desert,  and  the  shells,  mixed  with  the  surface  sand,  afford 
further  evidence  that  it  was  in  times  not  very  remote  part 
of  the  bottom  of  a  large  inland  sea,  of  which  the  land- 
locked  waters  of  Western  Asia  are  a  survival. 

Along  the  Caspian  the  steppe  and  desert  sink  gradually  to  the  water- 
level,  and  the  margins  of  the  sea  are  so  shallow  that,  except  where  extensive 


33s  THE  ERA  OF  COLONIES 

dredging  works  have  been  carried  out,  and  long  jetties  constructed, 
ships  have  to  discharge  their  cargoes  into  barges  two  or  three  miles  from 
the  shore. 

This  desert  region  marked  for  many  years  the  southern  limit  of  the 
Russian  empire  in  Central  Asia.  A  barren  waste  is  a  more  formidable 
obstacle  to  an  European  army  than  the  ocean  itself ;  and  the  Turkoman 
tribes  of  the  oases  not  only  refused  to  acknowledge  the  dominion  of  the 
White  Czar",  but  successfully  raided  up  to  the  very  gates  of  his  border  forts 
in  the  spring,  when  the  grass  of  the  steppe  afforded  forage  for  their  horses. 
The  first  successful  advance  across  the  desert  zone  was  made  by  Kaufmann, 
whose  expeditions  followed  the  belt  of  fertile  land  which  breaks  the  desert 
where  the  Amu  Daria  (the  Oxus  of  classical  times)  flows  down  from  the 
central  highlands  of  Asia  to  the  great  lake  of  the  Aral  Sea.  But  in  1878 
the  Russians  began  another  series  of  conquests,  starting  not  from  their  forts 
on  the  Oxus,  but  from  their  new  ports  on  the  southwestern  shore  of  the 
Caspian. 

In  this  direction  the  most  powerful  of  the  Turkoman  tribes  were  the 
Tekkes  of  the  Akhal  oasis.  Between  their  strongholds  and  the  Caspian 
The  Country  there  was  a  desert  nearly  150  miles  wide,  and  then  the  ridge 
of  the  Tekke  of  the  Kopet  Dagh  Mountains.  The  desert,  which  stretches 
Turkomans  from  ^  northern  shOre  of  the  Atrek  River,  is  partly  sandy 
waste,  partly  a  tract  of  barren  clayey  land,  baked  hard  by  the  sun ; 
broken  by  cracks  and  crevices  in  the  dry  season,  and  like  a  half-flooded 
brickfield  when  it  rains.  The  water  of  the  river  is  scanty,  and  not  good  to 
drink.  It  flows  in  a  deep  channel  between  steep  banks,  and  so  closely  does 
the  desert  approach  it  that  for  miles  one  might  ride  within  a  hundred  yards 
of  its  clay-banked  canon  without  suspecting  that  water  was  so  near.  Where 
the  Sumber  River  runs  into  the  Atrek  the  Russians  had  an  advanced  post — 
the  earthwork  fort  of  Tchad,  with  its  eight-gun  battery.  Following  the 
Sumber,  one  enters  the  arid  valleys  on  the  south  of  the  Kopet  Dagh  range. 
On  this  side  the  slopes  rise  gradually  ;  on  the  other  side  of  the  ridge  there 
is  a  sharp  descent,  and  sometimes  the  mountains  form  for  miles  a  line  of 
precipitous  rocky  walls.  At  the  foot  of  this  natural  rampart  lay  the  fortified 
villages  of  the  Tekke  Turkomans. 

Numerous  streams  descend  from  the  Kopet  Dagh,  flowing  to  the  north- 
eastward,   and    after    a  few  miles    losing    themselves   in    the 
Akhal  sands  of  the  Kara  Kum  desert.     Between  the  mountain  wall 

and  the  desert  the  ground  thus  watered  forms  a  long,  narrow 
oasis — the  land  of  Akhal — to  which  a  local  Mussulman  tradition  says  that 
Adam  betook  himself  when  he  was  driven  forth  from  Eden.  No  doubt 


THE  ERA  OF  COLONIES 


339 


much  of  the  praise  that  has  been  given  to  the  beauty  and  fertility  of  this 
three-hundred-mile  strip  of  well-watered  garden  ground  comes  from  the 
contrast  between  its  green  enclosures  and  the  endless  waste  that  closes  in 
the  horizon  to  the  north-eastward.  Corn  and  maize,  cotton  and  wool,  form 
part  of  the  wealth  of  its  people.  They  had  the  finest  horses  of  all  Turkes- 
tan, and  great  herds  and  flocks  of  cattle,  sheep  and  camels.  The  Herds  and 
The  streams  turned  numerous  mills,  and  were  led  by  a  net-  Villages  of 
work  of  tunnels  and  conduits  through  the  fields  and  garden.  theTekkes 
The  villages  were  mud-walled  quadrangles,  with  an  inner  enclosure  for  the 
cattle  ;  the  kibitkas,  or  tents,  and  the  mud  huts  of  the  Tekkes  filling  the 
space  between  the  inner  and  outer  walls,  and  straggling  outside  in  tem- 
porary camps  that  could  be  rapidly  cleared  away  in  war  time.  The  people 
were  over  100,000  strong — perhaps  140,000  in  ail — men,  women  and  chil- 
dren. They  were  united  in  a  loose  confederacy,  acknowledged  the  lordship 
of  the  Khan  of  Merv,  who  had  come  from  one  of  their  own  villages.  They 
raided  the.  Russian  and  Persian  borders  successfully,  these  plundering  expe- 
ditions filling  up  the  part  of  the  year  when  they  were  not  busy  with  more 
peaceful  occupations.  Along  their  fertile  strip  of  land  ran  the  caravan 
track  from' Merv  by  Askabad  to  Kizil  Arvat  and  the  Caspian,  and  when 
they  were  not  at  war  the  Tekkes  had  thus  an  outlet  for 

.  ...  .  .,    ,  The  Akhal 

their  surplus  productions,  among    which    were   beautiful    car-      warriors 
pets,  the  handiwork  of  their  women.      In  war  they  had  proved 
themselves  formidable  to  all  their  neighbors.      United  with  the  warriors  of 
Merv,  the  men  of  Akhal   had  cut  to  pieces  a  Khivan  army  in    1855   and  a 
host  of  Persians  in  1861. 

The  conquest  of  Akhal  had  long  been  a  subject  of  Russian  ambition. 
It  was  not  merely  that  they  were  anxious  to  put  an  end  once  for  all  to  the 
raids  of  the  Turkomans  of  the  great  oasis,  but  they  regarded  the  posses- 
sion of  this  region  as  a  great  step  towards  the  consolidation  of  their  power 
in  Asia.  From  Baku,  the  terminus  of  their  railways  in  the  Caucasus,  it  was 
easy  to  ferry  troops  across  the  Caspian.  What  they  wanted  was  a  secure 
road  from  some  port  on  its  eastern  shore  to  their  provinces  on  the  Upper 
Oxus,  and  anyone  who  knew  the  country  must  have  felt  that  this  road  would 
eventually  run  through  the  Akhal  and  the  Merv  oases.  Re  u,seof 

The,  first    effort  to  subdue  the  Akhal  warriors  proved  a       Lomakine 
complete    failure.      As    soon    as    peace    was   concluded    with       and  the 
Turkey,  after    the  war    of   1877-78,    General    Lomakine    was 
sent  with  a  strong  force   to  the   Caspian,  whence  he  made  his  way  by  the 
caravan  route    over    the    desert    to    the    strong  nomade    fortress    of    Geok 
Tepe   ("blue  hills"),  at  the   foot  of  the   mountain  range  mentioned.     We 


340  THE  ERA  OF  COLONIES 

shall  say  nothing  more  concerning  this  expedition  than  that  the  attempt  to 
take  the  fort  by  storm  proved  a  complete  failure,  and  the  Russians  were 
forced  to  retreat,  in  disorder. 

To  retrieve  this  disaster  General  Skobeleff,  the  most  daring  of  the  Rus- 
sian generals,  who  had  gained  great  glory  in  the  siege  of  Plevna,  was 
selected,  and  set  out  in  1880.  On  the  ist  of  January,  1881,  he  came  in 
sight  of  the  fort,  with  an  army  of  10,000  picked  troops,  and  fifty-four  can- 
non. Behind  the  clay  ramparts  lay  awaiting  him  from  20,000  to  30,000  of 
valiant  nomades,  filled  with  the  pride  of  their  recent  victory.  The  first  bat- 
skobeieff  and  teries  opened  fire  on  the  8th,  and  the  siege  works  were  pushed 
the  Siege  of  so  rapidly  forward  that  the  Russians  had  gained  all  the  out- 
works by  the  i/th.  This  steady  progress  was  depressing  to 
the  Turkomans,  who  were'not  used  to  such  a  method  of  fighting.  The  can- 
nonade continued  resistlessly,  the  wall  being  breached  on  the  23d  and  the 
assault  fixed  for  the  next  day.  Two  mines  had  been  driven  under  the  ram- 
part, one  charged  with  gun-powder  and  one  with  dynamite,  and  all  was 
ready  for  the  desperate  work  of  the  storming  parties. 

Early  the  next  day  all  the  Russian  guns  opened  upon  the  walls,  and  a 
false  attack  was  made  on  the  west  side  of  the  fort,  the  men  firing  inces- 
santly to  distract  the  attention  of  the  Turkomans,  while  the  actual  column 
of  attack  was  formed  and  held  ready  on  the  east.  Another  column,  2,000 
strong,  waited  opposite  the  south  angle,  the  soldiers  ready  and  eager  for  the 
assault. 

A  little  after  eleven  the  mines  were  fired.  The  explosion  caused  mo- 
mentary panic  among  the  garrison,  and  in  the  midst  of  the  confusion  the 
two  storming  columns  rushed  for  the  breaches.  But  before  they  could  climb 

the  heaps  of  smoking  debris  the  Tekkes  were  back  at  their 
The  Fort  Car-  ,.  i  i  r  r  •  n  j  i 

ried  by  Storm  Posts>  and  it  was  through  a  sharp   fire  of  nrles  and  muskets 

that  the  Russians  pushed  in  through  the  first  line  of  defence. 
The  fight  in  and  around  the  breaches  was  a  close  and  desperate  struggle  ; 
but  as  the  stormers  in  front  fell,  others  clambered  up  to  replace  them,  and 
at  the  same  time  Haidaroff,  converting  his  false  attack  into  a  real  one, 
escaladed  the  southern  wall. 

"  No  quarter  !"  had  been  the  shout  of  the  Russian  officers  as  they  dashed 
forward  at  the  head  of  the  stormers.  The  Tekkes  expected  none.  They 

fought  in  desperate  knots,  back  to  back,  among  the   huts   and 

A Massacre          tents  °^  ^le  town'  ^ut  at  ^ast  tnev  were  driven  out  by  the  east 
side.      Skobeleff  did   not  make   Lomakine's  mistake  of  block- 
ing their  way.      He   let   them   go  ;  but  once    they  were    out    on    the   plain 
the    Cossack  cavalry  was  launched   in  wild  pursuit,  and   for   ten  long  miles 


TffE  ERA  Of  COLONIES  341 

sword  and  spear  drank  deep  of  the  blood  of  the  fugitives.  Women  as 
well  as  men  were  cut  down  or  speared  as  the  horses  overtook  them.  More 
than  8,000  Tekkes  fell  in  the  pursuit.  Asked  a  year  after  if  this  was  true, 
Skobeleff  said  that  he  had  the  slain  counted,  and  that  it  was  so.  Six  thousand 
five  hundred  bodies  were  buried  inside  the  fortress ;  eight  thousand  more 
strewed  the  ten  miles  of  the  plain. 

Skobeleff  looked  on  the  massacre  as  a  necessary  element  in  the  con- 
quest of  Geok  Tepe.  "  I  hold  it  as  a  principle,"  he  said,  "  that  in  Asia  the 
duration  of  peace  is  in  direct  proportion  to  the  slaughter  you  inflict  on  the 
enemy.  The  harder  you  hit  them  the  longer  they  will  keep  quiet  after  it." 
No  women,  he  added,  were  killed  by  the  troops  under  his  immediate  com- 
mand, and  he  set  at  liberty  700  Persian  women  who  were  captives  in  Geok 
Tepe.  After  ten  miles  the  pursuit  was  stopped.  There  was  no  further  re- 
sistance. Not  a  shot  was  fired  on  either  side  after  that  terrible  day.  The 
chiefs  came  in  and  surrendered.  The  other  towns  in  the  eastern  part  of  the 
oasis  were  occupied  without  fighting ;  nay,  more,  within  a  month  of  Geok 
Tepe  Skobeleff  was  able  to  go  without  a  guard  into  the  midst 

of  the  very  men  who  had  fought  against  him.    We  in  America  Submission  of 

»         .&  .  .  .      .        the  Turkomans 

cannot  understand  the  calm  submission  with  which  the  Asiatic 

accepts  as  the  decree  of  fate  the  rule  of  the  conqueror  whose  hand  has  been 
heavy  upon  him  and  his.  The  crumbling  ramparts  of  Geok  Tepe  remain  a 
memorial  of  the  years  of  warfare  which  it  cost  the  Russians,  and  the  iron  track 
on  which  the  trains  steam  past  the  ruined  fortess  shows  how  complete  has 
been  the  victory. 

Skobeleff  looked  upon  his  triumph  as  only  the  first  step  to  further  con- 
quests. But  within  eighteen  months  of  the  storming  of  Geok  Tepe  he 
died  suddenly  at  Moscow.  Others  have  built  on  the  foundations  which  he 
laid  ;  and,  for  good  or  ill,  the  advance  which  began  with  the  subjugation  of 
the  Tekke  Turkomans  has  now  brought  the  Russian  outposts  in  Central 
Asia  in  sight  of  the  passes  that  lead  across  the  mountain  barriers  of  the 
Indian  frontier. 

This  conquest  was  quickly  followed  by  the  laying  of  a  railroad  across  the 
desert,  from  the  Caspian  to  the  sacred  Mohammedan  city  of  Samarcand, 
the  former  capital  of  the  terrible  Timur  the  Tartar,  and  the  iron  horse  now 
penetrates  freely  into  the  heart  of  that  once  unknown  land,  its  shrill  whistle 
perhaps  disturbing  Timur  in  his  tomb.  Across  the  broad  stretch  of  Siberia 
another  railroad  is  being  rapidly  laid,  and  extended  downward  through 
Manchuria  to  the  borders  of  China,  a  stupendous  enterpise,  the  road  being 
thousands  of  miles  in  length.  Manchuria,  the  native  land  of  the  Chinese 
emperors,  is  now  held  firmly  by  Russia,  and  the  ancient  empire  of  Persia, 
19 


342  THE  ERA  OF  COLONIES 

on   the    southern     border    of    Turkestan,    is    threatened    with    absorption, 

When  and  where  the  advance  of    Russia  in  Asia  will  end  no  man  can  say, 

Great  Devel-        perhaps  not  until   Hindostan  is  torn  from   British  hands  and 

opmentof         the  empire  of  the  north  has  reached  the  southern  sea.     While 

oissm  m    sia  Russ}a  jn   Europe   comprises    about    2,000,000  square   miles, 

Russia  in  Asia  has  attained  an  area  of  6,564,778  square  miles,  and  the  total 

area  of  this  colossal  empire  is  nearly  equal  to  that  of  the  entire  continent  of 

North  America. 

The  final  step  in  colonization — if  we  may  call  it  by  this  name — be- 
longs to  the  United  States,  which  at  the  end  of  the  century  laid  its  hand  on 
two  island  groups  of  the  Eastern  Seas,  acquiring  Hawaii  by  peaceful  an- 
nexation and  the  Philippine  Islands  by  warlike  invasion.  What  will  be  the 
result  of  this  acquisition  on  the  future  of  the  United  States  it  is  impossible 
to  say,  but  it  brings  the  American  border  close  to  China,  and  when  the 
destiny  of  that  great  empire  is  settled,  the  republic  of  the  West  may 
have  something  to  say. 

At  the  end  of  the  nineteenth  century  the  work  of  the  colonizing  powers 

was  fairly  at  an  end.      Nearly  all  the  available   territory  of  the    earth   had 

The  Future  of      been  entered  upon  and  occupied.      But  the  work,  while  in  this 

Colonizing        sense  completed,  was  in  a  fuller  sense  only  begun.     It  was  left 

Enterprise        £Qr  ^  twentieth  century  for  those  great  tracts  of  the  earth 

to  be  brought  properly  under  the  dominion  of  civilization,  their  abundant 

resources  developed,  peace  and  prosperity  brought  to  their  fertile  soils,  and 

their  long  turbulent  population  taught  the  arts  of  peaceful  progress   and 

civilized  industry. 


CHAPTER  XXII. 

How  the  United  States  Entered  the  Century. 

HITHERTO  our  attention  has  been  directed  to  the   Eastern   Hemi- 
sphere, and  to  the  stirring  events  of  nineteenth  century  history  in 
that  great  section  of  the  earth.      But  beyond  the  ocean,  in  North 
America,  a  greater  event,  one  filled  with  more  promise  for  mankind,  one 
destined   to   loom  larger  on   the   horizon  of  time,  was   meanwhile   taking 
place,  the  development  of  the  noble  commonwealth  of  the  United  States  of 
America.     To  this  far-extending  Republic  of  the  West,  a  nation   almost 
solely  an  outgrowth  of  the  nineteenth  century,  our  attention    The  Qreat 
needs  now  to  be  turned.      Its  history  is  one  full  of  great  steps      Republic  of 
of  progress,  illuminated  by  a  hundred  events  of  the  highest 
promise  and  significance,  and  it  stands  to-day  as  a  beacon  light  of  national 
progress  and  human  liberty  to  the  world,  "  the  land  of  the  brave  and  the 
home  of  the  free." 

A  hundred  years  ago  the  giant  here  described  was  but  a  babe,  a  new- 
born nation  just  beginning  to  feel  the  strength  of  its  limbs.  It  is  with  this 
section  of  its  history  that  we  are  here  concerned,  its  days  of  origin  and 
childhood.  Two  events  of  extraordinary  significance  in  human  history  rise 
before  us  in  the  final  quarter  of  the  eighteenth  century,  the  French  Revo- 
lution and  the  American  Declaration  of  Independence  and  its  results.  The 
first  of  these  revolutionary  events  we  have  dealt  with ;  the  second  remains 
to  be  presented. 

There  is  one  circumstance  that  impresses  us  most  strongly  in  this  great 
event,  the  remarkable  group  of  able  men  who  laid  the  foundation  of  the 
American  commonwealth.  Among  those  whose  hands  gave  The  Great  Men 
the  first  impulse  to  the  ship  of  state  were  men  of  such  noble  who  Founded 
proportions  as  George  Washington,  the  greatest  man  of  the  our  Nation 
century  not  only  in  America  but  in  the  whole  world  ;  Benjamin  Franklin, 
who  came  closely  to  the  level  of  Washington  in  another  field  of  human 
greatness  ;  Patrick  Henry,  whose  masterpieces  of  oratory  still  stir  the  soul 
like  trumpet-blasts;  Thomas  Jefferson,  to  whose  genius  we  owe  the  inimit- 
able "  Declaration  of  Independence;"  Thomas  Paine,  whose  pen  had  the 
point  of  a  sword  and  the  strength  of  an  army;  John  Paul  Jones,  the  hero 

343 


344  &3W  THE  UNITED  STATES  ENTERED  THE  CENTURY 

of  the  most  brilliant  feat  of  daring  in  the  whole  era  of  naval  warfare,  and 
Alexander  Hamilton,  whose  financial  genius  saved  the  infant  state  in  one 
of  the  most  critical  moments  of  its  career.  These  were  not  the  whole  of 
that  surpassing  coterie,  but  simply  in  their  special  fields  the  greatest,  and  it 
is  doubtful  if  the  earth  ever  saw  an  abler  group  of  statesmen  than  those  to 
whom  we  owe  the  Constitution  of  the  United  States. 

It  is  not  our  purpose  to  tell  the  story  of  the  American  Revolution. 
That  lies  back  of  the  borders  of  time  within  which  this  work  is  confined. 
But  some  brief  statement  of  its  results  is  in  order,  as  an  introduction  to  the 
nineteenth  century  record  of  the  United  States. 

It  was  a  country  in  almosfan  expiring  state  when  it  emerged  from  the 

fierce  death  struggle  of  the  Revolution.     It  had  been  swept  by 

the  states         fire  and  sword,  its  resources  destroyed,  its  industries  ruined, 

After  the          jts  government  financially 'bankrupt,  its  organization  in  a  state 

Revolution 

of  tottering  weakness,  little  left  it  but  the  courage  of  its 
people  and  the  aspirations  of  its  leaders.  But  in  courage  and  aspiration 
safety  and  progress  lie,  and  with  those  for  its  motive  forces  the  future  of 
the  country  was  assured. 

The  weakness  spoken  of  was  not  the  only  or  the  worst  weakness  with 
which  the  new  community  had  to  contend.  Though  named  the  United 
States,  its  chief  danger  lay  in  its  lack  of  union.  The  thirteen  recent 
colonies — now  states — were  combined  only  by  the  feeblest  of  bonds,  one 
calculated  to  carry  them  through  an  emergency,  not  to  hold  them  together 
under  all  the  contingencies  of  human  affairs.  Practically  they  were  thirteen 
distinct  nations,  not  one  close  union  ;  a  group  of  communities  with  a  few 
ties  of  common  self-interest,  but  otherwise  disunited  and  distinct. 

"Articles  of  Confederation  and  Perpetual  Union  "had  been  adopted 
in  1777  and  ratified  by  the  agreement  of  all  the  states  in  1781.  But  the 
Confederation  was  not  a  union.  Each  state  claimed  to  be  a  sovereign  com- 
monwealth, and  little  power  was  given  to  the  central  government.  The 
weak  point  in  the  Articles  of  Confederation  was  that  they 
£ave  C°ngress  no  power  to  lay  taxes  or  to  levy  soldiers.  It 
could  merely  ask  the  states  for  men  and  money,  but  must 
wait  till  they  were  ready  to  give  them — if  they  chose  to  do  so  at  all.  It 
could  make  treaties,  but  could  not  enforce  them  ;  could  borrow  money,  but 
could  not  repay  it ;  could  make  war,  but  could  not  force  a  man  to  join  its 
armies  ;  could  recommend,  but  had  no  power  to  act. 

The  states  proposed  to  remain  independent  except  in  minor  particulars. 
They  were  jealous  of  one  another  and  of  the  general  Congress.  "We  are," 
said  Washington,  "one  nation  to-day  and  thirteen  to-morrow."  That  well 


HOW  THE  UNITED  STATES  ENTERED  THE  CENTURY  345 

expressed  the  state  of  the  case ;  no  true  union  existed  ;  the  states  were 
free  to  join  hands  more  closely  or  to  drift  more  widely  asunder. 

The  time  from  the  revolt  against  the  stamp  duties  in  1775  to  the 
inauguration  in  1789  of  the  National  Government  under  which  we  live  has 
been  called  the  critical  period  of  American  history.  It  was  a  period  which 
displayed  all  the  inaptitude  of  the  Americans  for  sound  financiering.  There 
is  hardly  an  evil  in  finances  that  cannot  be  illustrated  by  some  event  in 
American  affairs  at  that  time.  The  Americans  began  the  war  without  any 
preparation,  they  conducted  it  on  credit,  and  at  the  end  of  fourteen  years 
three  millions  of  people  were  five  hundred  millions  of  dollars  or  more  in 
debt.  The  exact  amount  will  never  be  known.  Congress  and  the  State 
Legislatures  issued  paper  currency  in  unlimited  quantities  and  upon  no 
security.  The  Americans  were  deceived  themselves  in  believing  that  their 
products  were  essential  to  the  welfare  of  Europe,  and  that  all 

European  nations  would  speedily  make  overtures  to  them  for   Fa.ls<L !deas 

in  Finance 

the  control  of  American  commerce.  It  may  be  said  that  the 
Americans  wholly  over-estimated  their  importance  in  the  world  at  that 
time  ;  they  thought  that  to  cut  off  England  from  American  commerce 
would  ruin  England  ;  they  thought  that  the  bestowal  of  their  commerce  upon 
France  would  enrich  France  so  much  that  the  French  king,  for  so  inestimable 
a  privilege,  could  well  afford  to  loan  them,  and  even  to  give  them,  money. 

The  doctrine  of  the  rights  of  man  ran  riot  in  America.  Paper  currency 
became  the  infatuation  of  the  day.  It  was  thought  that  paper  currency 
would  meet  all  the  demands  for  money,  would  win  American  independence. 
Even  so  practical  a  man  as  Franklin,  then  in  France,  said  :  "  This  effect  of 
paper  currency  is  not  understood  on  this  side  the  water ;  and,  indeed,  the 
whole  is  a  mystery  even  to  the  politicians,  how  we  have  been  able  to  con- 
tinue a  war  four  years  without  money,  and  how  we  could  pay  with  paper 
that  had  no  previously  fixed  fund  appropriated  specifically  to  redeem  it. 
This  currency,  as  we  manage  it,  is  a  wonderful  machine  :  it  performs  its 
office  when  we  issue  it ;  it  pays  and  clothes  troops  and  provides  victuals 
and  ammunition,  and  when  we  are  obliged  to  issue  a  quantity  excessive,  it 
pays  itself  off  by  depreciation." 

If  the  taxing  power  is  the  most  august  power  in  government,  the  abuse 
of  the  taxing  power  is  the  most  serious  sin  government  can  commit.  No 
one  will  deny  that  the  Americans  were  guilty  of  committing  most  grievous 
financial  offenses  during  the  critical  period  of  their  history.  They  abused 
liberty  by  demanding  and  by  exercising  the  rights  of  nationality,  and  at  the 
same  time  by  neglecting  or  refusing  to  burden  themselves  with  the  taxation 
necessary  to  support  nationality. 


346  HOW  THE  UNITED  STATES  ENTERED  THE  CENTURY 

The  inability  of  the  Congress  of  the  Confederation  to  legislate  under 

the  provisions  of  the  Articles  compelled  their  amendment ;  for  while  the 

exigencies  of  war  had  forced  the  colonies  into  closer  union, — a  "perpetual 

titutions      league  of  friendship," — they  had  also  learned  additional  les- 

of Colonies       sons  in  the  theory  and  administration  of  local  government; 

and  Confeder-  for  eacn  of  the  colonies,  with  the  exception  of  Connecticut 
and  Rhode  Island,  had  transformed  colonial  government  into 
government  under  a  constitution.  The  people  had  not  looked  to  Congress 
as  a  central  power  ;  they  considered  it  as  a  central  committee  of  the  States. 
The  individualistic  tendencies  of  the  colonies  strengthened  when  the 
colonies  transformed  themselves  into  commonwealths. 

The  struggle,  which  began  between  the  thirteen  colonies  and  the 
imperial  Parliament,  was  now  transformed  into  a  struggle  between  two 
tendencies  in  America,  the  tendency  toward  sovereign  commonwealths  and 
the  tendency  toward  nationality.  The  first  commonwealth  constitutions 
did  not  acknowledge  the  supreme  authority  of  Congress  ;  there  was  yet 
lacking  that  essential  bond  between  the  people  and  their  general  govern- 
ment, the  power  of  the  general  government  to  address  itself  directly  to 
individuals.  Interstate  relations  in  1787  were  scarcely  more  perfect  than 
they  had  been  fifteen  years  before.  The  understanding  of  American  affairs 
was  more  common,  but  intimate  political  association  between  the  common- 
wealths was  still  unknown.  The  liberty  of  nationality  had  not  yet  been 
won.  A  peculiar  tendency  in  American  affairs  from  their  beginning  is  seen 
in  the  succession  of  written  constitutions,  instruments  peculiar  to  America. 
The  commonwealths  of  the  old  Confederation  demonstrated  the  necessity 
for  a  clearer  definition  of  their  relations  to  each  other  and  of  the  associa- 
tion of  the  American  people  in  nationality. 

A  sense  of  the  necessity  for  commercial  integrity  led  to  the  calling  of 
the  Philadelphia  Convention  to  amend  the  old  Articles,  but  when  the  Con- 
vention assembled  it  was  found  that  an  adequate  solution  of  the  large 
problem  of  nationality  could  not  be  found  in  an  amendment  of  the  old 
"Articles  of  Confederation,"  but  called  for  a  new  and  more  vigorous  Con- 
stitution. This  Convention  combined  the  associated  states 

The  Constitu- 
tional Con-       into  a  strongly  united  nation,  possessed  of  all  the  powers  of 

ventionand      nationality,  civil,   financial  and   military.      It  organized  a  tri- 

itsWOfk  J  r      r*  r?  •  r< 

partite  government,  consisting  of  Supreme  bxecutive,  Su- 
preme Legislative,  and  Supreme  Judicial  departments,  each  with  all  the 
power  "  necessary  to  make  it  feared  and  respected."  While  the  Upper 
House  of  Congress  still  represented  the  states  as  separate  commonwealths, 
the  Lower  House  represented  the  people  as  individuals  ;  it  standing,  not 


HOW  THE  UNITED  STATES  ENTERED  THE  CENTURY  347 

{or  a  group  of  distinct  communities,  but  for  a  nation  of  people.  And  to  this 
House  was  given  the  sole  power  "  to  lay  and  collect  taxes,  duties,  imposts 
and  excises,  and  to  pay  the  debt,  and  provide  for  the  common  defence  and 
general  welfare  of  the  United  States." 

With  this  Constitution  the  United  States  of  America  first  came  into 
existence  ;  a  strong,  energetic  and  capable  nation  ;  its  government  possessed 
of  all  the  powers  necessary  to  the  full  control  of  the  states,  and  full  ability 
to  make  itself  respected  abroad  ;  its  people  possessed  of  all  the  civil  rights 
}et  known  or  demanded. 

Yet  the  people,  in  their  political  privileges,  were  still  controlled  by  the 
constitutions  of  the  states,  and  these  fixed  close  restrictions  on.  the  right  of 
suffrage,  the  electorate  being  confined  to  a  small  body  whose  ownership 
of  real  estate  and  whose  religious  opinions  agreed  with  the  ideas  existing  in 
colonial  times.  The  property  each  voter  was  required  to  possess  differed 
in  different  commonwealths.  In  New  Jersey  he  must  have  Restrictions  on 
property  to  the  value  of  fifty  pounds,  in  Maryland  and  th"e  the  Right  of 
Carolinas  an  estate  of  fifty  acres,  in  Delaware  a  freehold  Sufferage 
estate  of  known  value,  in  Georgia  an  estate  of  ten  dollars  or  follow  a 
mechanic  trade  ;  in  New  York,  if  he  would  vote  for  a  member  of  Assembly 
he  must  possess  a  freehold  of  twenty  pounds,  and  if  he  would  vote  for  State 
Senator,  it  must  be  a  hundred.  Massachusetts  required  an  elector  to  own  a 
freehold  estate  worth  sixty  pounds  or  to  possess  an  annual  income  of  three 
pounds.  Connecticut  was  satisfied  if  his  estate  was  of  the  yearly  value  of 
seven  dollars,  and  Rhode  Island  required  him  to  own  the  value  of  one  hun- 
dred and  thirty-four  dollars  in  land.  Pennsylvania  required  him  to  be  a 
freeholder,  but  New  Hampshire  and  Vermont  were  satisfied  with  the  pay- 
ment of  a  poll-tax. 

The  number  of  electors  was  still  further  affected  by  the  religious  opin- 
ions required  of  them.  In  New  Jersey,  in  New  Hampshire,  in  Vermont, 
in  Connecticut,  and  in  South  Carolina,  no  Roman  Catholic  could  vote  ; 
Maryland  and  Massachusetts  allowed  ''those  of  the  Christian  religion"  to- 
exercise  the  franchise,  but  the  "Christian  religion"  in  Massa-  Religious Quali- 
chusetts  was  of  the  Congregational  Church.  North  Carolina  ficationsof 
required  her  electors  to  believe  in  the  divine  authority  of  the  Voters 
Scriptures  ;  Delaware  was  satisfied  with  a  belief  in  the  Trinity  and  in  the 
inspiration  of  the  Bible  ;  Pennsylvania  allowed  those,  otherwise  qualified, 
to  vote  who  believed  "  in  one  God,  in  the  reward  of  good,  and  the  punish- 
ment of  evil,  and  in  the  inspiration  of  the  Scriptures."  In  New  York,  in 
Virginia,  in  Georgia,  and  in  Rhode  Island,  the  Protestant  faith  was  pre- 


348  HOW  THE  UNITED  STATES  ENTERED  THE  CENTURY 

dominant,  but  a  Roman  Catholic,  if  a  male  resident,  of  the  age  of  twenty- 
one  years  or  over,  could  vote  in  Rhode  Island. 

The  property  qualifications  which  limited  the  number  of  electors  were 
higher  for  those  who  sought  office.  If  a  man  wished  to  be  governor  of 
New  Jersey  or  of  South  Carolina,  his  real  and  personal  property  must 
amount  to  ten  thousand  dollars  ;  in  North  Carolina  to  one  thousand  pounds; 
in  Georgia  to  two  hundred  and  fifty  pounds  or  two  hundred  and  fifty  acres 
Property  Quail-  °^  ^an<^ »  m  NGW  Hampshire  to  five  hundred  pounds;  in  Mary- 

fications  of  land  to  ten  times  as  much,  of  which  a  thousand  pounds  must 
be  of  land ;  in  Delaware  he  must  own  real  estate  ;  in  New 
York  he  must  be  worth  a  hundred  pounds;  in  Rhode  Island,  one  hundred 
and  thirty-four  dollars ;  and  in  Massacusetts  a  thousand  pounds.  Connec- 
ticut required  her  candidate  for  governor  to  be  qualified  as  an  elector,  as 
did  New  Hampshire,  Vermont,  Pennsylvania,  and  Virginia.  In  all  the  com- 
monwealths the  candidate  for  office  must  possess  the  religious  qualifications 
required  of  electors. 

From  these  statements  it  is  evident  that  the  suffrage  in  the  United 
States  was  greatly  limited  when,  after  the  winning  of  American  indepen- 
dence, the  Constitution  of  the  United  States  was  framed  and  the  common- 
wealths had  adopted  their  first  constitutions  of  government.  It  may  be 
said  that  in  1787  the  country  was  bankrupt,  and  America  was  without  credit, 
Condition  of  the  an<^  tnat  °^  a  population  of  three  million  souls,  who,  by  our 

Country  in        present   ratio,  would  represent  six  hundred  thousand  voters, 

17  7  less  than  one  hundred  and  fifty  thousand   possessed  the  right 

to  vote.  African  slavery  and  property  qualifications  excluded  above  fo.ur 
hundred  thousand  men  from  the  exercise  of  the  franchise.  It  is  evident, 
then,  that  at  the  time  when  American  liberty  was  won  American  liberty  had 
only  begun  ;  the  offices  of  the  country  were  in  the  possession  of  the  few, 
scarcely  any  provision  existed  for  common  education,  the  roads  of  the  coun- 
try may  be  described  as  impassable,  the  means  for  transportation,  trade,  and 
commerce  as  feeble.  If  the  struggle  for  liberty  in  America  was  not  to  be 
in  vain,  the  people  of  the  United  States  must  address  themselves  directly 
to  the  payment  of  their  debts,  to  the  enlargement  of  the  franchise,  to  im- 
provements in  transportation,  and  to  the  creation,  organization,  and  support 
of  a  national  system  of  common  taxation.  It  is  these  great  changes  which 
Pa  mentof  constitute  the  history  of  this  country  during  the  nineteenth 

Debt  and  Ex-    century. 

tension  of  ^11    these    have    been  gained  since  the  adoption  of  the 

Constitution.   The  remarkable  financial  operations  of  Alexander 

Hamilton — by  which  the,  crushing  load  of  debt  of  the  new  nation  was  funded, 


HOW  THE  UNITED  STATES  ENTERED  THE  CENTURY  349 

for  payment  in  after  years  a  customs  tariff  established  as  a  means  of  obtain- 
ing revenue,  and  provision  made  for  paying  the  claims  of  the  soldiers 
of  the  Revolution — saved  the  credit  and  secured  the  honor  of  the  nation. 
As  regards  the  franchise,  it  was  greatly  extended  during  the  nineteenth 
century.  By  the  time  the  Erie  canal  was  excavated  property  qualifications 
for  suffrage  had  disappeared  in  nearly  all  the  states,  and  by  the  middle  of 
the  century  such  qualifications  had  been  abandoned  in  them  all.  Those  of  .1 
religious  character  had  vanished  thirty  years  earlier. 

As  yet,  however,  the  right  to  vote  was  limited  to  "  free,  white,  male 
citizens."  Twenty  years  afterwards,  on  March  30,  1870,  a  further  great  ex- 
tension of  the  right  of  suffrage  was  made,  when,  in  accordance  with  the 
Fifteenth  Amendment  to  the  Constitution,  it  was  proclaimed  by  Hamilton 
Fish,  Secretary  of  State,  that  the  right  of  citizens  of  this  country  to  vote 
could  not  be  denied  or  abridged  by  the  United  States  or  by  any  State  on 
account  of  race,  color,  or  previous  condition  of  servitude. 

Universal  suffrage,  so  far  as  male  citizens  were  concerned,  thus  became 
the  common  condition  of  American  political  life  in  1870.  But  the  struggle 
for  liberty  in  this  direction  was  not  yet  ended.  Female  citizens,  about  the 
middle  of  the  century,  gave  voice  to  their  claim  to  the  same  right,  and  with 
such  effort  that  they  had  gained  the  right  to  vote  at  all  elections  in  four  of 
the  States — Wyoming,  Colorado,  Utah,  and  Idaho — by  the  end  of  the  cen- 
tury, and  partial  rights  of  suffrage  in  a  majority  of  the  States.  The  outlook 
is  that  before  many  years  universal  suffrage  in  its  fullest  sense  will  be  estab- 
lished in  the  United  States. 

With  the  westward  movements  of  the  millions  of  human  beings  who 
have  occupied  the  North  American  continent  have  gone  the  institutions  and 
constitutions  of  the  east,  modified  in  their  journey  westward  by  the  varying 
conditions  of  the  life  of  the  people.  The  brief  constitutions  of  1776  have 
developed  into  extraordinary  length  by  successive  changes  and  additions 
made  by  the  more  than  seventy  Constitutional  Conventions  which  have  been 
held  west  of  the  original  thirteen  States.  These  later  consti-  Development  in 
tutions  resemble  elaborate  legal  codes  rather  than  brief  state-  state  Consti- 
ments  of  the  fundamental  ideas  of  government.  But  these 
constitutions,  of  which  those  of  the  Dakotas  and  of  Montana  and  Wash- 
ington are  a  type,  express  very  clearly  the  opinions  of  the  American  people 
in  government  at  the  present  time.  The  earnest  desire  shown  in  them  for  an 
accurate  definition  of  the  theory  and  the  administration  of  government  proves 
how  anxiously  the  people  of  this  country  at  all  times  consider  the  interpreta- 
tion of  their  liberties,  and  with  what  hesitation,  it  may  be  said,  they  delegate 
their  powers  in  government  to  legislatures,  to  judges,  and  to  governors. 


35o  HOW  THE  UNITED  STATES  ENTERED  THE  CENTURY 

The  struggle  for  liberty  will  never  cease,  for  with  the  progress  of  civili- 
zation new  definitions  of  the  wants  of  the  people  are  constantly  forming  in 
the  mind.  The  whole  movement  of  the  American  people  in  government, 
from  the  simple  beginnings  of  representative  government  in  Virginia,  when 
the  little  parliament  was  called,  to  the  present  time,  when  nationality  is  en- 
throned and  mighty  commonwealths  are  become  the  component  parts  of 
the  "more  perfect  union,"  has  been  toward  the  slow  but  constant  realiza- 
tion of  the  rights  and  liberties  of  the  people.  Education,  for 
Tlnited  states  which  no  commonwealth  made  adequate  provision  a  century 
ago,  is  now  the  first  care  of  the  State.  Easy  and  rapid  trans- 
portation, wholly  unknown  to  our  fathers,  is  now  a  necessary  condition  of 
.daily  life.  Trade  has  so  prospered  that  the  accumulated  wealth  of  the 
country  is  more  than  sixty  billions  of  dollars.  Newspapers,  magazines, 
books  and  pamphlets  are  now  so  numerous  as  to  make  it  impossible  to  con- 
tain them  all  in  hundreds  libraries,  and  the  American  people  have  become 
the  largest  class  of  readers  in  the  world. 

A  century  ago  there  were  but  six  cities  of  more  than  eight  thousand 
people  in  this  country  ;  the  number  is  now  more  than  five  hundred.  Three 
millions  of  people  have  become  seventy-five  millions.  The  area  of  the  origi- 
nal United  States  has  expanded  from  eight  hundred  and  thirty  thousand 
square  miles  to  four  times  that  area.  With  expansion  and  growth  and  the 
amelioration  in  the  conditions  of  life,  the  earnest  problems  of  government 
have  been  brought  home  to  the  people  by  the  leaders  in  the  State,  by  the 
clergy,  by  the  teachers  in  schools  and  colleges,  and  by  the  press. 

But  though  we  may  be  proud  of  these  conquests,  we  are  compelled  in 
the  last  analysis  of  our  institutions,  to  return  to  a  few  fundamental  notions  of 
our  government.  We  must  continue  the  representative  idea  based  upon 
the  doctrine  of  the  equality  of  rights  and  exercised  by  representative  assem- 
blies founded  on  popular  elections  ;  and  after  our  most  pleasing  contempla- 
tion of  the  institutions  of  America,  we  must  return  to  the  people,  the  founda- 
tion of  our  government.  Their  wisdom  and  self-control,  and  these  alone, 
will  impart  to  our  institutions  that  strength  which  insures  their  perpetuity 


CHAPTER  XXIIL 

Expansion  of  the  United  States  from  Dwarf  to  Giant. 

IN  :775»  when  the  British  colonies  in  America  struck  the  first  blow  for 
independence,  they  were  of  dwarfish  stature  as  compared  with  the 

present  superb  dimensions  of  the  United  States.  Though  the  war 
with  France  had  given  them  possession  of  the  great  Ohio  Valley,  the  settled 
portion  of  the  country  lay  between  the  Alleghanies  and  the  Atlantic,  and  the 
thirteen  confederated  States  were  confined  to  a  narrow  strip  along  the  ocean 
border  of  the  continent. 

But  before  and  during  the  Revolutionary  War  pathfinders  and  pioneers 
were  at  work.  Chief  among  them  was  the  noted  hunter  Daniel  Boone,  the 
explorer  and  settler  of  the  "Dark  and  Bloody  Ground"  of  Kentucky. 
Before  him  daring  men  had  crossed  the  mountains,  and  after  him  came 
others,  so  that  by  the  end  of  the  Revolution  the  hand  of  civilization  was 
firmly  laid  on  the  broad  forest  land  of  Kentucky  and  Tennessee.  The  rich 
country  north  of  the  Ohio,  where  the  British  possessed  a  number  of  forts, 
was  captured  for  the  United  States  by  another  daring  adventurer,  George 
Rogers  Clark,  who  led  a  body  of  men  down  the  Ohio,  took  and  held  the 
British  forts,  and  saved  the  northwest  to  the  struggling  States.  The  bound- 
\nes  of  the  United  States  in  1800,  as  established  by  the  treaty  of  peace 
with  Great  Britain,  extended  from  the  Atlantic  Ocean  to  the  Mississippi, 
ara^  from  the  Great  Lakes  on  the  north  to  Florida  on  the  south.  Florida, 
then  held  by  Spain,  included  a  strip  of  land  extending  to  the  Mississippi 
Rivtr,  so  that  the  new  republic  was  cut  off  from  the  Gulf  of  Mexico  by 
domain  belonging  to  a  foreign  country.  The  area  thus  acquired  by  the  new 
nation  was  over  827,000  square  miles.  It  was  inhabited  in  1800  by  a  popu- 
lation of  5,300,000. 

The  vast  and  almost  wholly  unknown  territory  west  of  the  Mississippi, 
claimed  by  France,  in  virtue  of  her  discoveries  and  settlements  on  the  great 
river,  until  1763,  when  it  was  ceded  to  Spain,  was  held  by  that  country  in 
1800.  This  cession  gave  Spain  complete  control  of  the  lower  course  of  the 
Mississippi,  since  her  province  of  Florida  extended  to  the  east  bank  of  the 
stream.  And  she  held  it  in  a  manner  that  proved  deeply  annoying  to  the 
American  settlers  in  the  west,  to  whom  free  navigation  of  the  Mississippi 
was  oJ  great  and  growing  importance, 


352 


EXPANSION  OF  THE  UNITED  STATES 


These  settlers  were  increasing  in  numbers  with  considerable  rapidity. 
The  daring  enterprise  of  Daniel  Boone  and  other  fearless  pioneers  had 
opened  up  the  fertile  lands  of  Kentucky  and  Tennessee.  The  warlike 
boldness  of  Colonel  Clark  had  gained  the  northwest  territory  for  the  new 
nation.  Into  this  new  country  pioneer  settlers  poured,  over 
Tlof  theWest *  ^  mountains  and  down  the  Ohio,  and  by  the  opening  of  the 
century  villages  and  towns  had  been  built  in  a  hundred  places, 
and  farmers  were  widely  felling  the  virgin  woods  and  planting  their  grain 
in  the  fertile  soil.  Kentucky  and  Tennessee  had  already  been  organized  as 
states,  and  their  admission  was  quickly  followed  by  that  of  Ohio,  which 
entered  the  Union  in  1803.  In  the  same  year  an  event  of  the  highest 
importance  took  place,  the  acquisition  of  the  great  Louisiana  territory  by 
the  United  States. 

It  has  been  stated  above  that  the  action  of  Spain  gave  great  annoyance 
to  the  settlers  in  the  country  west  of  the  Alleghanies.     To  these  the  natural 
commercial  outlet  to  the  sea  was  the  Mississippi   River,  and  the  free  use 
Spain  Closes  the  °^    this    stream    was     forbidden    by     Spain,    through    whose 
flississippi  to    country  ran  its  lower  course.      Spain    was  so  determined    to 
retain  for  herself  the  exclusive  navigation  of  the  great  river 
that  in  1786  the  new  American  republic  withdrew  all  claim  upon  it,   agree- 
ing to  withhold  any  demand  for  navigation  of  the   Mississippi  for  twenty- 
five  years. 

This  action  proved  to  be  hasty  and  unwise.  The  West  rilled  up  with 
unlooked-for  rapidity,  and  the  settlers  upon  the  Mississippi  soon  began  to 
insist  on  free  use  of  its  waters,  their  irritation  growing  so  great  that  the 
United  States  vainly  sought  in  1793  to  induce  Spain  to  open  the  stream  to 
American  craft.  This  purpose  was  attained,  however,  in  1795,  when  a 
treaty  was  made  which  opened  the  Mississippi  to  the  sea  for  a  term  of  three 
years,  with  permission  for  Americans  to  use  New  Orleans  as  a  free  port  of 
entry,  and  place  goods  there  on  deposit. 

Five  years  later  (1800),  by  an  article  in  a  secret  treaty  between  Spain 
and  France,  the  vast  province  of  Louisiana,  extending  from  the  source  to 
the  mouth  of  the  Mississippi  River,  and  westward  to  the  Rocky  Mountains, 
was  ceded  by  Spain  to  France,  from  which  country  Spain  had 
received  'li  'm  J763-  Towards  the  end  of  1801  Napoleon  Bona- 
parte, then  at  the  head  of  French  affairs,  sent  out  a  fleet  and 
army  ostensibly  to  act  against  San  Domingo,  but  really  to  take  possession 
of  New  Orleans. 

When  the  secret  of  this  treaty  leaked  out,  as  it  soon  did,  there  was 
great  excitement  in  the  United  States,  the  irritation  being  increased  by  <* 


EXPANSION  OF  THE  UNITED  STATES  353 

Spanish  order  which  withdrew  the  right  of  deposit  of  American  merchan- 
dise in  New  Orleans,  granted  by  the  treaty  of  1795,  and  failed  to  substitute 
any  other  place  for  that  city,  in  accordance  with  the  terms  of  the  treaty. 
So  strong  was  the  feeling  that  a  Pennsylvania  Senator  introduced  a  resolu- 
tion into  Congress,  authorizing  President  Jefferson  to  call  out  50,000 
militia  and  occupy  New  Orleans.  But  Congress  wisely  decided  that  it 
would  be  better  and  cheaper  to  buy  it  than  to  fight  for  it,  and  in  January, 
1803,  made  an  appropriation  of  $2,000,000  for  its  purchase.  The  President 
thereupon  sent  James  Monroe  to  Paris  to  co-operate  with  Robert  R.  Living- 
ston, United  States  Minister  to  France,  in  the  proposed  purchase. 

Fortunately  for  the  United  States  a  new  war  between  England  and 
France  was  then  imminent,  in  the  event  of  which  Napoleon  felt  that  he 
could  not  long  hold  his  American  acquisition  against  the  powerful  British 
navy.  Not  only  New  Orleans,  but  the  whole  of  Louisiana, 
would  probably  be  lost  to  him,  and  just  then  money  for  his 
wars  was  of  more  consequence  than  wild  lands  beyond  the 
sea.  Therefore,  to  the  surprise  of  the  American  Minister,  he  was  asked  to 
make  an  offer  for  the  entire  territory.  This  was  on  April  nth.  On  the 
1 2th  Monroe  reached  Paris.  The  two  commissioners  earnestly  debated  on 
the  offer.  They  had  no  authority  to  close  with  such  a  proposition,  but  by 
the  time  they  could  receive  fresh  instructions  from  Washington  the  golden 
opportunity  might  be  lost,  and  Great  Britain  deprive  us  of  the  mighty  West. 
An  ocean  telegraph  cable  would  have  been  to  them  an  invaluable  boon.  As 
it  was,  there  was  no  time  to  hesitate,  and  they  decided  to  close  with  the 
offer,  fixing  the  purchase  price  at  $10,000,000.  Napoleon  demanded  more, 
and  in  the  end  the  price  fixed  upon  was  $15,000,000,  of  which  $3,750,000 
was  to  be  paid  to  American  citizens  who  held  claims  against  Spain.  A 
treaty  to  this  effect  was  signed  April  30,  1803. 

The    news    fell    upon  Spain    like  a  thunderbolt.     She  filed  a  protest 
against  the  treaty — based,  probably,  on  a  secret  condition  of  her  cession  of 
Louisiana  to  France,  to  the  effect  that  it  should  not  be  parted  with  by  that 
country.     But  Napoleon  was  not  the  man  to  pay  any  attention  to  a  protest 
from  a  power  so  weak  as  Spain,  and  the   matter  was   one  with  which  the 
United  States  was  not  concerned.      President  Jefferson  highly    HOW  the  Pur- 
approved  of  the  purchase,  and  called  an  extra  session  of  the      chase  Was 
Senate   for    its    consideration.      It    met   with    some  vigorous 
opposition  in  that  body,  based  upon  almost  absolute  ignorance  of  the  value 
of    the    territory    involved;     but    it   was    ratified    in    October,    1803,    and 
Louisiana  became  .ours.     The  territory  thus  easily  and    cheaply    acquired 
added    about    920,000   square    miles    to    the     United    States,    more    than 


354  EXPANSION  OF  THE  UNITED  STATES 

doubling  its  area.  It  is  now  divided  up  into  a  large  number  of  States, 
and  includes  much  of  the  most  productive  agricultural  land  of  the  United 
States. 

The  members  of  the  Senate  who  opposed  the  ratification  of  the  treaty 

of  purchase  were  in  a  measure  justified  in  their  doubt.     Almost  nothing  was 

known  of  the  country  involved,  and  many  idle  legends  were  afloat  concerning 

It.      Hunters  and  trappers  had  penetrated  its  wilds,  but  the  stories  told  by 

them  had  been  transformed  out  of  all  semblance  of    truth.     In  order  to 

dispel  this  ignorance  and   satisfy  these  doubts,  the  President 

the  Country     determined  to  send  an   exploring  expedition  to  the  far  West, 

with  the  purpose  of  crossing  the  Rocky  Mountains,  seeking 

the   head-waters  of  the  Columbia  River,  and  following  that  stream  to  its 

mouth.      The   men   chosen  to  lead  this  expedition  were  William  Clark — 

brother  of  George  Rogers  Clark,  of  Revolutionary  fame — and  Merriwether 

Lewis.      Both  of  these  were  army  officers,  and  they  were  well  adapted  for  the 

arduous  enterprise  which  they  were  asked  to  undertake. 

Lewis  and  Clark  left  St.  Louis  in  the  summer  of  1803.     They  encamped 

for  the  winter  on  the  bank  of  the  Mississippi  opposite  the  mouth  of  the 

The  Lewis  Missouri   River.     The   company  included  nine    Kentuckians, 

and  Clark         who    were  used    to    Indian    ways    and  frontier  life,    fourteen 

Expedition        soldiers,  two  Canadian  boatmen,  an  interpreter,  a  hunter  and 

a  negro  boatman.      Besides  these,  a  corporal  and  guard  with  nine  boatmen 

were  engaged  to  accompany  the  expedition  as  far  as  the  territory  of   the 

Mandans. 

The  party  carried  with  it  the  usual  goods  for  trading  with  the  Indians — 
looking-glasses,  beads,  trinkets,  hatchets,  etc.,  and  such  provisions  as  were 
necessary  for  the  sustenance  of  its  members.  While  the  greater  part  of  the 
command  embarked  in  a  fleet  of  three  large  canoes,  the  hunters  and  pack- 
horses  followed  a  parallel  route  along  the  shore.  In  this  way,  in  the  spring 
of  1804,  tne  ascent  of  the  Missouri  was  commenced.  In  June  the 
country  of  the  Osages  was  reached,  then  the  lands  occupied  by  the  Ottawa 
tribes,  and  finally,  in  the  fall,  the  hunting  grounds  of  the  Sioux.  Here  the 
leaders  of  the  expedition  ordered  cabins  to  be  constructed,  and  camped  for 
the  winter  among  the  Mandans,  in  latitude  27  degrees  21  minutes  north. 
They  found  in  that  country  plenty  of  game,  buffalo  and  deer  being  abun- 
dant ;  but  the  weather  was  intensely  cold  and  the  expedition  was  hardly 
prepared  for  the  severity  of  the  climate,  so  that  its  members  suffered  greatly. 

In  April  a  fresh  start  was  made  and  the  party  continued  to  ascend  the 
Missouri,  reaching  the  great  falls  by  June.  Here  they  named  the  tributary 
waters  and  ascended  the  northernmost,  which  they  called  the  Jefferson  River, 


EXPANSION  OF  THE  UNITED  STATES  355 

until  further  navigation  was  impossible ;  then  Captain  Lewis  with  three  com- 
panions left  the  expedition  in  camp  and  started  out  on  foot  toward  the 
mountains,  in  search  of  the  friendly  Shoshone  Indians,  from  whom  he 
expected  assistance  in  his  projected  journey  across  the  mountains. 

On  the  1 2th  of  August  he  discovered  the  source  of  the  Jefferson  River 
in  a  defile  of  the  Rocky  Mountains  and  crossed  the  dividing  ridge,  upon,  the 
other  side  of  which  his  eyes  were  gladdened  by  the  discovery  of  a  small 
rivulet  which  flowed  toward  the  west.  Here  was  proof  irrefutable  "that 
the  great  backbone  of  earth  "  had  been  passed.  The  intrepid  explorer  saw 
with  joy  that  this  little  stream  danced  out  toward  the  setting  The  Head_ 
sun — toward  the  Pacific  Ocean.  Meeting  a  force  of  Sho-  Waters  of  the 
shones  and  persuading  them  to  accompany  him  on  his  return  Columbla 
to  the  main  body  of  the  expedition,  Captain  Lewis  sought  his  companions 
once  more.  Captain  Clark  then  went  forward  to  determine  their  future 
course,  and  coming  to  the  river  which  his  companion  had  discovered,  he 
named  it  the  Lewis  River. 

A  number  of  Indian  horses  were  procured  from  their  red-skinned 
friends  and  the  explorers  pushed  on  to  the  broad  plains  of  the  western 
slope.  The  latter  part  of  their  progress  in  the  mountains  had  been  slow 
and  painful,  because  of  the  early  fall  of  snow,  but  the  plains  presented  all 
the  charm  of  early  autumn.  In  October  the  Kaskaskia  River  was  reached, 
and,  leaving  the  horses  and  whatever  baggage  could  be  dispensed  with  in 
charge  of  the  Indians,  the  command  embarked  in  canoes  and  descended  to 
the  mouth  of  the  Columbia  River,  upon  the  south  bank  of 
which,  four  hundred  miles  from  their  starting  point  upon 
this  stream,  they  passed  the  second  winter.  Much  of  the 
return  journey  was  a  fight  with  hostile  Indians,  and  the  way  proved  to  be 
much  more  difficult  than  it  had  been  found  while  advancing  toward  the 
west.  Lewis  was  wounded  before  reaching  home,  by  the  accidental  dis- 
charge of  a  gun  in  the  hands  of  one  of  his  force. 

Finally,  after  an  absence  of  two  years,  the  expedition  returned  to  its 
starting  point,  the  leaders  reaching  Washington  while  Congress  was  in  session. 
Grants  of  land  were  immediately  made  to  them  and  to  their  subordinates. 
Captain  Lewis  was  rewarded  also  with  the  governorship  of  Missouri.  Clark 
was  appointed  brigadier-general  for  the  territory  of  Upper  Louisiana,  and  in 
1813  was  made  governor  of  Missouri.  When  this  Territory  became  a  State 
he  was  appointed  superintendent  of  Indian  affairs,  which  office  he  filled  till 
his  death. 

The  second  acquisition  of  territory  by  the  United  States  embraced  the 
peninsula  of  Florida.  The  Spanish  colony  of  Florida  was  divided  into  two 


556  EXPANSION  OF  THE  UNITED  STATES 

sections,  known  as  Eastern  and  -Western  Florida,  the  latter  extending 
from  the  Appalachicola  River  to  the  Mississippi  River,  and 
cutting  °ff  l^e  Americans  of  Florida  and  Alabama  from  all  ac- 
cess to  the  Gulf.  Spain  set  up  a  customhouse  at  the  mouth  of 
the  Alabama  River,  and  levied  heavy  duties  on  goods  to  or  from  the 
country  up  that  stream. 

The  United  States  was  not  willing  to  acknowledge  the  right  of  Spain 
to  this  country.  It  claimed  that  the  Louisiana  purchase  included  the  region 
east  of  the  Mississippi  as  far  as  the  Perdido  River, — the  present  western 
boundary  of  Florida — and  in  1810  a  force  was  sent  into  this 
country  which  took  possession  of  it,  with  the  exception  of  the 
city  of  Mobile.  That  city  was  occupied  by  General  Wilkinson, 
commander-in-chief  of  the  army,  in  1813,  leaving  to  Spain  only  the  country 
between  the  Perdido  and  the  Atlantic  Ocean  and  south  of  Georgia. 

Throughout  these  years  the  purpose  had  grown  in  the  southern  states 
to  gain  this  portion  of  the  Spanish  dominion,  as  well  as  Western  Florida, 
for  the  United  States.  On  January  15  and  March  3,  1811,  the  United 
States  Congress  passed  in  secret — and  its  action  was  not  made  known 
until  1818 — acts  which  authorized  the  President  of  the  United  States 
to  take  "  temporary  possession "  of  East  Florida.  The  commissioners 
appointed  under  these  acts,  Matthews  and  Mitchell,  both  Georgians,  stirred 
up  insurrection  in  the  coveted  territory,  and,  when  President  Madison 
refused  to  sustain  them,  the  state  of  Georgia  formally  pronounced  Florida 
General  Jackson  needful  to  its  own  peace  and  welfare,  and  practically  declared 
invades  East-  war  on  its  private  account.  But  its  expedition  against  Florida 
onda  came  to  nothing.  In  1814,  General  Andrew  Jackson,  then  in 
command  of  United  States  forces  at  Mobile,  made  a  raid  into  Pensacola, 
and  drove  out  a  British  force  which  had  been  placed  there.  He  afterwards 
restored  the  place  to  the  Spanish  authorities  and  retired.  Four  years 
after,  during  the  Seminole  war,  Jackson,  annoyed  by  Spanish  assistance 
given  to  the  Indians,  again  raided  Eastern  Florida,  captured  St.  Marks  and 
Pensacola,  hung  Arbuthnot  and  Ambruster,  two  Englishmen  who  were 
suspected  of  aiding  the  Seminoles,  as  "  outlaws  and  pirates,"  and  again 
demonstrated  the  fact  that  Florida  was  at  the  mercy  of  the  United  States. 
The  action  of  Jackson  was  unauthorized  by  the  government,  and  his 
hanging  the  Englishmen  without  taking  the  trouble  to  make 
sure  °^  *^e'ir  Su'1^  cause<^  a  feeling  of  hostile  irritation  in 
England.  But  it  had  by  this  time  grown  quite  evident  to  Spain, 
both  that  it  could  not  hold  Florida  in  peace  and  that  this  colony  was  of 
very  little  value  to  it.  In  consequence  it  agreed  to  sell  the  peninsula  to  the 


EXPANSION  OF  THE  UNITED  STATES  357 

United  States  for  the  sum  of  $5,0x30,000,  the  treaty  being  signed  February 
22,  1819.  By  this  treaty  Spain  also  gave  up  all  claim  to  the  country 
west  of  the  Louisiana  purchase,  extending  from  the  Rocky  Mountains 
to  the  Pacific  Ocean.  The  purchase  of  Florida  added  59,268  square  miles  to 
the  United  States,  and  the  way  was  cleared  for  the  subsequent  acquisition 
of  the  Oregon  country. 

The  next  accession  of  territory  came  in  1845,  when  Texas  was  added 
to  the  dominion  of  the  United  States.  This  country  had,  since  1821,  been 
one  of  the  states  of  the  Mexican  Republic.  But  American  frontiersmen, 
of  the  kind  calculated  to  foment  trouble,  soon  made  their  way  across  the 
borders,  increasing  in  numbers  as  the  years  passed  on,  until  Texas  had  a 
considerable  population  of  United  States  origin.  Efforts  were  made  to 
purchase  this  country  from  Mexico,  $i,oco,ooo  being  offered  in  1827  and 
$5,000,000  in  1829.  These  were  declined,  and  in  1833  Texas  adopted  a 
constitution  as  a  state  of  the  Mexican  republic.  Two  years  . 
later  Santa  Anna,  the  .president  of  Mexico,  was  made  dictator,  Freedom  and 


and  all  state  constitutions  were  abolished.      Irritated  by  this,       is  Annexed  to 

the  American  inhabitants  declared  the  independence  of  Texas 

in  1836,  and  after  a  short  war,  marked  by  instances  of  savage 

cruelty  on  the  part  of  the  Mexicans,  gained  freedom  for  that  country.     Texas 

was  organized  as  a  republic,  but  its  people  soon  applied  for  annexation  to  the 

United  States.     This  was  not  granted  until  1845.     The  territory  added  to 

this  country  by  the  admission  of  Texas  amounted  to  376,133  square  miles. 

In  the  following  year  another  large  section  of  territory  was  added  to 
the  rapidly  growing  United  States.  The  Louisiana  purchase  ran  indefi- 
nitely westward,  but  came  to  be  considered  as  bounded  on  the  west  by  the 
Rocky  Mountains,  Spain  retaining  a  shadowy  claim  over  the  country  west 
of  that  range.  This  exceedingly  vague  claim  was  abandoned  in  the  Florida 
purchase  treaty,  and  the  broad  Oregon  country  was  left 
without  an  owner.  The  United  States,  indeed,  might  justly  country 
have  claimed  ownership  on  the  same  plea  advanced  for  new 
regions  elsewhere — namely,  that  of  discovery  and  exploration.  Captain 
Grey,  in  his  ship,  the  Columbia,  carried  the  starry  flag  to  its  coast  in 
.1792,  and  was  the  first  to  enter  and  sail  up  its  great  river,  which  he 
named  after  his  vessel.  In  1805  the  country  was  traversed  and  explored  by 
Lewis  and  Clark.  In  1811  John  Jacob  Astor  founded  the  settlement  of 
Astoria  at  the  mouth  of  the  Columbia,  and  sent  hunters  in  search  of  furs 
through  the  back  .country.  And  in  1819  the  vague  right  over  the  country 
held  by  Spain  was  transferred  by  treaty  to  the  United  States. 


358  EXPANSION  OF  THE  UNITED  STATES 

These  various  circumstances  would  have  established  a  prescriptive 
right  to  the  country  concerned  as  against  other  countries,  had  any  thought  of 
claiming  such  a  right  been  entertained.  But  no  man,  statesman  or  com- 
moner, thought  the  country  worth  the  value  of  even  a  paper  claim,  and  it 
was  left  unconsidered  and  unthought  of  until  the  century  was  well  advanced. 
Then,  after  the  Hudson  Bay  Company  had  gained  control  of  Astoria,  and 
had  begun  to  fill  the  country  with  fur  hunters,  a  living  sense  of  the  value 
of  this  great  region  came  to  the  mind  of  one  man. 

This  was    Dr.    Marcus   Whitman,   a   missionary  physician    among  the 
Indians  of  the  Columbia   River  region.      He  discovered   that   the  Hudson 
Bay  Company  was  making  efforts  to  bring   permanent   settlers   there,  and 
that    it    proposed    to    claim  the  country  for  Great    Britain.      At    once  the 
energetic    doctor    set    out  for    Washington,    crossing    the    vast    stretch   of 
country    from  the   Pacific  to  the  Atlantic    on  horseback  and 
^ide  traversing   the   Rocky  Mountains  in  the  dead  of  winter.      It 

was  a  long  and  terrible  journey,  full  of  perils  and  hardships, 
but  he  accomplished  it  in  safety,  and  strongly  urged  the  government  at 
Washington  to  lay  claim  to  the  country.  Even  then  it  was  hard  to  arouse 
an  interest  in  the  statesmen  concerning  this  far-off  territory,  so  the  brave 
pioneer  went  among  the  people,  told  them  of  the  beauty  of  the  country 
and  the  fertility  of  its  soil,  and  on  his  return,  in  1843,  took  with  him  an 
emigrant  train  of  nearly  a  thousand  persons.  This  settled  the  question. 
The  newcomers  formed  a  government  of  their  own.  Others  followed,  and 
the  question  of  ownership  was  practically  settled.  In  1845  there  were  some 
7,000  Americans  in  Oregon  and  only  a  few  British.  By  that  time  a  stern 
determination  had  arisen  in  the  people  of  this  country  to  retain  Oregon.  A 
claim  was  made  on  the  whole  western  region  up  to  the  parallel  of  54  degrees 
40  minutes,  the  southern  boundary  of  Russian  America,  and  the  political 
war-cry  of  that  year  was  "fifty-four  forty  or  fight."  In  1846  the  question 
was  settled  by  treaty  with  Great  Britain,  the  disputed  country 
Acquired  being  divided  at  the  forty-ninth  parallel.  The  northern  por- 

tion became  British  Columbia,  the  southern  Oregon.  In  this 
way  it  was  that  the  United  States  spanned  the  continent  and  established  its 
dominion  from  ocean  to  ocean.  The  tract  acquired  measured  about  255,000 
square  miles.  It  now  constitutes  the  States  of  Oregon,  Washington  and 
Idaho. 

The  United  States  grew  with  extraordinary  rapidity  in  the  decade  with 
which  we  are  now  concerned,  the  acquisition  of  Texas  and  Florida  being 
followed  in  1848  by  another  great  addition  of  territory,  much  larger  than 
either.  This  came  as  the  result  of  the  annexation  of  Texas. 


EXPANSION  OF  THE  UNITED  STATES  359 

Mexico  had  never  acknowledged  the  independence  of  the  "  Lone  Star 
Republic,"   and   was   deeply   dissatisfied   at    its   acquisition   by  the    United 
States,  which  it  looked  upon  as  an  unwarranted  interference  in  its  private 
affairs.      The  strained  relations  between  the  two  countries  were  made  more 
stringent  by  a  dispute  as  to  the  western  boundary  of  Texas,  both  countries 
claiming    the    strip    of    land    between    the    Rio    Grande    and    \varWith 
Nueces    Rivers.      The    result   was   a  war,  the   description    of       Mexico  and 
which  must  be  left  for  a  later  chapter.      It  will  suffice  here       its  Results 
to  say  that  the  American  troops  marched  steadily  to  victory,  and  at  the 
end  of  the  war  held  two  large  districts  of  northern  Mexico,  those  of  New 
Mexico  and  California.     The  occupation  of  these  Mexican  states  gave  this 
country  a  warrant  to  claim  them  as  the  prizes  of  victory. 

But  there  was  no  disposition  shown  to  despoil  the  defeated  party  with- 
out compensation.  An  agreement  was  made  to  pay  Mexico  $15,000,000 
for  New  Mexico  and  California,  and  to  assume  debts  owed  by  Mexico  to 
United  States  citizens  amounting  to  about  $3,000,000.  The  territory  thus 
acquired  was  545,783  square  miles  in  extent.  Of  its  immense  California  and 
value  we  need  scarce  speak.  It  will  suffice  to  say  that  it  gave  New  Mexico 
the  United  States  the  gold  mines  of  California  and  the  silver  Purchased 
mines  of  Nevada,  together  with  the  still  more  valuable  fertile  fields  of  the 
California  lowlands.  Five  years  afterwards,  to  settle  a  border  dispute, 
another  tract  of  land,  south  of  New  Mexico,  45,535  square  miles  in  extent, 
was  purchased  for  the  sum  of  $10,000,000.  This  is  known  as  the  Gadsden 
purchase,  the  treaty  being  negociated  by  James  Gadsden.  Thus  in  less 
than  ten  years  the  United  States  acquired  more  than  1,220,000  square 
miles  of  territory,  increasing  its  domain  by  nearly  three-fourths.  These 
new  acquisitions  carried  it  across  the  continent  in  a  broad  band,  giving  it 
a  coast  line  on  the  Pacific  nearly  equal  to  that  on  the  Atlantic,  and  adding 
enourmously  to  its  mineral  and  agricultural  wealth. 

Still  another  extensive  acquisition  remained  to  be  made.      Long  before, 
when  the  daring  pioneers  of  Russia  overran  Siberia,  parties  of  them  crossed 
the  narrow   Bering  Strait  and  took  possession  of  the  northwestern  section 
of  the  American  continent.     This  territory,  long  known  as  Russian  America, 
embraced  the  broad  peninsular  extension  west  of  the  i4ist  degree  of  west 
longitude,  and  a  narrow  strip  of  land  stretching  down  the  coast   The  Acquistion 
as    far   south  as  the  parallel  of   54  degrees  40  minutes.      It      of  Russian 
included  also   all   the   coast   islands  and  the  Aleutian  Archi-      America 
pelago,  with   the  exception  of  Copper  and  Bering  Islands  on  the  Siberian 
coast.     This  territory  was  of  little  value  or  advantage  to  Russia,  and  in  1867 


360  EXPANSION  OF  THE  UNITED  STATES 

that  country  offered  to  sell  it  to  the  United  States  for  $7,200,000.  The 
offer  was  accepted  without  hesitation,  the  result  being  an  addition  of  577,000 
square  miles  to  our  territory. 

As  regards  the  value  of  this  acquisition  something  more  remains  to 
be  said.  The  active  Yankee  prospectors  have  found  Alaska — as  the  new 
territory  was  named — far  richer  than  its  original  owners  dreamed  of.  It 
was  like  the  story  of  California  repeated.  First  were  the  valuable  fur  seals, 
which  haunted  certain  islands  of  Bering  Sea.  Then  were  the  fur  animals  of 
the  mainland.  To  these  must  be  added  the  wealth  of  the  rivers,  which 
were  found  to  swarm  with  salmon  and  other  food  fishes  Next  may  be 
named  the  forests,  which  cover  the  coast  regions  for  hundreds  of  square 

miles.      Finally,  the    country    proved   to    be    rich    in    mineral 
Alaska  wealth,  and  especially  in  gold.     The  recently  discovered  gold 

deposits  lie  principally  on  the  British  side  of  the  border,  the 
Klondike  diggings — developed  in  1897 — being  in  Canada.  But  gold  has 
been  mined  in  Alaska  for  years,  and  probably  exists  on  most  of  the  tribu- 
taries of  the  Yukon  River,  so  that  the  country  may  yet  prove  to  be  a 
second  California  in  its  golden  treasures. 

The  final  acquisition  of  territory  by  the  United  States  came  in  1899,  as 
a  result  of  the  Spanish-American  War  of  1898.  The  treaty  of  peace  gave 
to  this  country  a  series  of  highly  fertile  tropical  islands,  consisting  of  Porto 
Rico  in  the  West  Indies,  and  the  Philippine  Archipelago  in  the  Asiatic 
Seas.  To  these  must  be  added  a  temporary  protectorate  over,  and  possibly 
the  future  ownership  of,  the  broad  and  fertile  West  Indian  Island  of  Cuba. 
In  1898  there  came  by  peaceful  means  another  accession  of  territory,  the 
Hawaiian  group  of  islands  in  the  Central  Pacific.  These,  with  some  islands 
of  minor  importance— including  Guam,  in  the  Ladrone  group,  also  acquired 
from  Spain — constitute  the  recent  island  accessions  of  the  United  States. 

Their  areas  are:  Porto   Rico,  ^,s^o;   Hawaii,  6,^64;  and  the 

Island  Acquisi-     r>u-r       •  ii  ,-  i       r      u 

tjons  Philippines,    116,000  square  miles;    making  a  total  of  about 

1 26,000  square  miles.  As  a  consequence  of  those  various  acces- 
jsions  of  territory,  the  United  States  now  has  an  area  of,  in  round  numbers, 
3,732,000  square  miles,  more  than  four  times  its  area  in  1800.  As  a  result 
of  these  several  acquisitions  this  country  has  grown  from  one  of  the  smaller 
nations  to  nearly  the  largest  nation  in  area,  on  the  earth,  while  its  population 
has  increased  from  5,300,000  in  1800  to  about  75,000,000  in  1900.  Its  few 
small  cities  at  the  beginning  of  the  century  have  been  replaced  by  a  con- 
siderable number  of  large  ones,  three  of  them  with  more  than  1,000,000  in- 
habitants each,  while  New  York,  the  largest,  is  now  the  second  city  in  popu- 
lation on  the  earth. 


CHAPTER  XXIV. 

The   Development  of  Democratic  Institutions  in 

America. 

MODERN  democracy  is  often  looked  upon  as  something  peculiarly 
secular,  unreligious,  or  even  irreligious  in  its  origin.  In  truth,  how- 
ever, it  has  its  origin  in  religious  aspirations  quite  as  much  as  modern 
art  or  architecture  or  literature.  To  the  theology  of  Calvin,  the  founder  of 
the  Republic  of  Geneva,  grafted  upon  the  sturdy  independence  of  English 
and  Scotch  middle  classes,  our  American  democracy  owes  its  birth.  James  I. 
well  appreciated  that  the  principles  of  uncompromising  Protestantism  were 
as  incompatible  with  monarchy  as  with  the  hierarchy  which  they  swept 
aside.  Each  man  by  his  theology  was  brought  into  direct  personal  respon- 
sibility to  his  God,  without  the  intervention  of  priest,  bishop,  or  pope,  and 
without  any  allegiance  to  his  king  except  so  far  as  it  agreed  with  his  allegi- 
ance to  the  King  of  kings.  Macaulay  has  struck  this  note  of  Puritan 
republicanism  when  he  says  that  the  Puritans  regarded  them-  Th  .QUS 

selves  as  "  Kings  by  the  right  of  an  earlier  creation  ;    priests      origin  of 
by  the  interposition  of  an  Almighty  hand."     As  John   Fiske      Modern  Dem- 
says,  James  Stuart  always  treasured  up  in  his  memory  the  day 
when  a  Puritan  preacher  caught  him  by  the  sleeve  and  called  him  "  God's 
silly  vassal."     "  A  Scotch   Presbytery,"  cried  the  king,  "  agrees  as  well  with 
monarchy  as  God  and  the   devil.     Then  Jack  and  Tom  and  Will  and  Dick 
shall   meet,  and   at  their  pleasure   censure  me  and  my  council  and  all  our 
proceedings  !  " 

But  the  democracy  which  was  founded  in  New  England  as  the  logical 
outcome  of  the  religious  principles  for  which  the  Puritans  left  Old  England 
was  not  democracy  as  we  know  it  to-day.  The  Puritans,  for  the  most  part, 
believed  as  much  in  divinely  appointed  rulers  as  the  monarchs  against  whom 
they  rebelled  ;  but  these  divinely  appointed  rulers  were  to  be  the  "  elect  of 
God  " — those  who  believed  as  they  did,  and  joined  with  their  organizations 
to  establish  His  kingdom  on  earth.  For  this  reason  we  find  the  Massachu- 
setts Colony  as  early  as  1631  deciding  that,  "  no  man  shall  be  admitted  to 
the  freedom  of  this  body  politic  but  such  as  are  members  of  some  of  the 
churches  within  the  limits  of  the  same."  The  government,  in  short,  wan 

361 


362  DEVELOPMENT  OF  DEMOCRATIC  INSTITUTIONS 

simply  a  democratic  theocracy,  and,  as  the  colony  grew  in  numbers,  the 
power  came  to  be  lodged  in  the  hands  of  the  minority.  There  were,  how- 
ever, among  the  clergy  of  Massachusetts  men  who  believed  in  democracy  as 
we  understand  it  to-day.  Alexander  Johnson,  in  his  history  of  Connecticut, 
says  with  truth  that  Thomas  Hooker,  who  led  from  Massachusetts  into 
The  Political  Connecticut  the  colony  which  established  itself  at  Hartford, 
Conceptions  laid  down  the  principle  upon  which  the  American  nation  long 
oithePuritans  generations  after  was  to  be  established.  When  Governor 
Winthrop,  in  a  letter  to  Hooker,  defended  the  restriction  of  the  suffrage 
on  the  ground  that  "  the  best  part  is  always  the  least,  and  of  that  best  part 
the  wiser  part  is  always  the  lesser,"  the  learned  and  generous-hearted  pastor 
replied  :  "  In  matters  which  concern  the  common  good,  a  general  council, 
chosen  by  all  to  transact  business  which  concerns  all,  I  conceive  most  suit- 
able to  rule,  and  most  safe  for  the  relief  of  the  whole."  The  principles  of 
our  republicanism  were  never  better  stated  until  Lincoln  in  his  oration  at 
Gettysburg  made  his  appeal  that  this  nation  might  be  consecrated  anew  in 
the  fulfillment  of  its  mission,  and  that  government  "  from  the  people,  for 
the  people,  by  the  people  "  might  not  perish  from  the  earth.  Both  Hooker 
and  Lincoln  had  a  supreme  belief  in  the  wisdom  of  the  plain  people  in  the 
matters  which  affect  their  own  lives.  The  rank  and  file  of  the  people  have 
the  surest  instinct  as  to  what  will  benefit  or  injure  the  rank  and  file  of  the 
people,  and  when  upon  them  is  placed' the  responsibility  of  determining 
what  their  government  shall  be,  they  are  educated  for  self-government.  In 
the  colony  which  Thomas  Hooker  founded  upon  these  principles  there  was 
found  at  the  time  of  the  Revolution  more  political  wisdom,  more  genius  for 
self-government,  and  more  devotion  to  the  patriotic  cause,  than  in  any  other 
of  the  thirteen  colonies. 

At  the  time  of  the  Revolution,  however,  there  was  another  democracy 
besides  that  of  New  England  which  enabled  the  colonies  successfully  to 
resist  the  Government  of  George  III.  This  was  the  democracy  of  the  planters 
of  the  South.  The  democracy  of  the  Southern  colonies  was  not,  like  that 
of  New  England,  the  democracy  of  collective  self-government, 
but  the  democracy  of  individual  self-government,  or,  rather,  of 
individual  self-assertion.  In  fact,  it  would  hardly  be  too  much 
to  say  that  many  of  the  Virginia  planters  who  espoused  so  warmly  and 
fought  so  bravely  in  the  cause  of  liberty  were  not  inspired  by  the  spirit  of 
democracy  at  all,  but  rather  by  the  spirit  of  an  aristocracy  which  could  brook 
no  control.  These  southern  planters  were  the  aristocrats  of  the  American 
Revolution.  In  New  York  City,  and  even  in  Boston  and  Philadelphia,  trie, 
wealthiest  merchants  were  strongly  Tory  in  their  sympathies.  In  New 


DEVELOPMENT  OF  DEMOCRATIC  INSTITUTIONS  ^63 

York  it  was  affirmed  by  General  Greene  that  two-thirds  of  the  land  belonged 
to  men  in  sympathy  with  the  English  and  out  of  sympathy  with  their  fellow 
countrymen.  In  these  cities  it  was  the  plain  people  and  the  poorer  classes 
who  furnished  most  of  the  uncompromising  patriots,  but  in  the  South  men 
of  fortune  risked  their  fortunes  in  the  cause  of  independence.  These  men 
were  slave  owners,  and  the  habit  of  mastery  made  them  fiercely  rebellious 
when  George  III.  attempted  in  any  way  to  tyrannize  over  them.  Many  of 
them  were  the  descendants  of  the  English  nobility,  and  as  such  they  acknow- 
ledged no  superiors.  Naturally,  then,  in  the  struggle  for  liberty  they 
furnished  the  leaders  of  the  colonists,  both  North  and  South;  and  the  agri- 
cultural classes,  whether  rich  or  poor,  were  naturally  on  the  side  of  self- 
government,  for  their  isolation  had  from  the  first  compelled  them  to  be 
self-governing. 

The  first  half  century  of  the  political  history  of  the  United  States  con- 
sisted rather  in  the  development  of  the  political  rights  of  the  individual 
citizen  than  of  the  loyalty  which  all  owed  to  the  American  nation.  Nothing 
is  so  difficult  as  to  keep  in  mind  that  the  government  of  the  colonies  at  the 
close  of  the  Revolution  was  not  what  it  is  to-day,  and  that 

,  .  i         j  r    What  Was 

democracy  as  we  know  it  was  regarded  as  the  dream  ot  Thought  of 
theorists.  Some  of  the  members  of  the  Federal  Convention  Democracy  in 
deeply  distrusted  the  common  people.  Elbridge  Gerry,  of 
Massachusetts,  declared  that  "  The  people  do  not  want 
suffrage,  but  are  the  dupes  of  pretended  patriots;"  and  those  who  were  at 
all  in  sympathy  with  him  prevented,  as  they  imagined,  the  election  of  the 
President  by  the  people  themselves,  and  did  prevent  the  election  of  the 
United  States  Senators  by  the  people.  Some  of  them  were  even  opposed 
to  the  election  of  the  House  of  Representatives  directly  by  the  people;  but, 
fortunately,  even  Hamilton  sided  with  Madison  and  Mason,  when  they 
urged  that  our  House  of  Commons  ought  to  have  at  heart  the  rights  and 
interests  of,  and  be  bound,  by  the  manner  of  their  election,  to  be  the  repre- 
sentatives of  every  class  of  people.  But  by  "  every  class  of  people  "  the 
framers  of  the  Constitution  from  the  more  conservative  of  the  States  meant 
simply  every  class  of  freeholders. 

In  Virginia  none  could  vote  except  those  who  owned  fifty  acres  of  land. 
In  New  York,  to  vote  for  Governor  or  State  Senator,  a  freehold  worth  $250 
clear  of  mortgage  was  necessary,  and  to  vote  for  Assembly-   property  Quaii- 
men  a  freehold  of  $50  or  the  payment  of  a  yearly  rent  of      ficationsfor 
$10  was   necessary.      Even   Thomas   Jefferson,  who  was   the 
Democratic  philosopher  of  the  Revolutionary  period,  did  not  strenuously 
insist  that  the  suffrage  must  be  universal,  and  it  was  not  for  a  half  century 


364  DEVELOPMENT  OF  DEMOCRATIC  INSTITUTIONS 

that  it  became  universal,  even  among  white  males.  In  the  State  of  New 
York  these  restrictions  existed  until  the  adoption  of  the  Constitution  of 
1821,  and  even  this  Constitution  merely  reduced  the  privileges  of  land 
owners.  Old  Chancellor  Kent,  the  author  of  "  Kent's  Commentaries," 
declared  in  this  convention  that  he  would  not  "  bow  before  the  idol  of  uni- 
versal suffrage,"  the  theory  which  he  said  had  "  been  regarded 

Chancellor  ,        ,  .  f  »»          1       1 

Kent's  Views  with  terror  by  the  wise  men  ot  every  age,  and  whenever  tried 
on  Universal  j^d  brought  "corruption,  injustice,  violence,  and  tyranny." 
"  If  universal  suffrage  were  adopted,"  he  declared,  "  prosperity 
would  deplore  in  sackcloth  and  ashes  the  delusion  of  the  day."  The 
horrors  of  the  French  Revolution  were  always  held  up  by  conservatives  to 
show  that  the  people  could  not  be  trusted,  and  the  learned  author  of  the 
"  Commentaries,"  which  every  lawyer  has  pored  over,  maintained  that,  if 
universal  suffrage  should  be  adopted,  "The  radicals  of  England,  with  the 
force  of  that  mighty  engine,  would  sweep  away  the  property,  the  laws,  and 
the  people  of  that  island  like  a  deluge."  Not  until  between  1840  and  1850 
did  universal  suffrage  among,  the  whites  come  to  be  accepted  in  the  older 
States. 

During  the  first  half  century  of  our  history  it  was  the  Democratic 
party,  the  party  of  Jefferson,  which  was  on  the  side  of  these  extensions  of 
popular  rights.  The  principle  of  this  party  was  that  each  State  ought  to 
legislate  for  itself,  with  the  least  possible  control  from  the  central  govern- 
ment ;  that  each  locality  ought  to  have  its  freedom  of  local  government 
extended ;  and  that  each  individual  should  be  self-governing,  with  the  same 
rights  and  privileges  for  all.  As  regards  foreign  affairs,  it  was  charac- 
terized by  a  "passion  for  peace,"  and  an  abiding  hostility  toward  a  costly 
army  and  navy.  Jefferson  believed  that  the  way  to  avoid  wars,  and  the  way 
to  be  strong,  should  war  become  inevitable,  was  by  the  devotion  of  the 
people  to  productive  industry,  and  not  by  burdening  them  to  rival  the 
powers  of  Europe  in  the  strength  of  their  armaments.  In  the  year  1800, 
the  party  which  rallied  to  his  support — then  called  the  Republican  party, 
but  generally  spoken  of  as  the  Democratic  party — triumphed  over  the 
Federalists. 

In  New  England  alone  did  Federalism  remain  strong   at   the  close  of 
Federalism  and    Je^erson's  first  administration.      In  that  section -the  calvinistic 
Democracy       clergy,  who  had  done  so  much  for  the  establishment  of  Ameri- 
m  New  Eng.     can  democracy,  fought  fiercely  against  its  extension.     Jeffer- 
son's followers  demanded  the  separation  of  Church  and  State 
and  the  abolition   of   the  religious  qualifications  for  office    holding,  which 
were  then  almost  as  general  as  property  qualifications.     He  was  known  to 


DEVELOPMENT  OF  DEMOCRATIC  INSTITUTIONS  365 

be  in  sympathy  with  the  French  revolution,  and  was  therefore  denounced 
as  a  Jacobin,  both  in  religion  and  in  politics.  We  cannot  wonder,  therefore, 
that  in  the  section  in  which  the  clergy  were  the  real  rulers,  Jeffersonian 
democracy  was  regarded  with  hatred  and  contempt.  Vermont  alone,  among 
the  New  England  States,  was  from  the  first  thoroughly  democratic,  and 
this  was  because  in  Vermont  there  was  no  established  aristocracy,  either  of 
education  or  of  wealth.  In  Connecticut,  which  under  clerical  leadership  had 
once  been  the  stronghold  of  advanced  democracy,  we  find  President  Dwight 
expressing  a  sentiment  common  not  only  to  the  clergy  but  to  the  educated 
classes  generally,  when  he  declared  that  "the  great  object  of  Jacobinism, 
both  in  its  political  and  moral  revolution,  is  to  destroy  every  race  of  civili- 
zation in  the  world."  "  In  the  triumph  of  Jeffersonianism,"  he  said,  "we  have 
now  reached  a  consummation  of  democratic  blessings  ;  we  have  a  country 
governed  by  blockheads  and  knaves." 

But  the  ideas  which  in  New  England  were  at  first  received  only  by  the 
poor  and  the  ignorant,  were  in  the  very  air  which  Americans  breathed.  The 
new  States  which  were  organized  at  the  West  were  aggressively  democratic 
from  the  outset.  In  the  Northwest  Territory  the  inequalities  New  ideas  in 
against  which  Jeffersonian  democracy  protested  never  gained  the  New 
a  foothold.  Here,  where  the  State  of  Ohio  was  organized  West 
during  Jefferson's  first  administration,  the  union  of  Church  and  State  was 
not  thought  of,  and  no  religious  qualifications  whatever  for  the  office  of 
Governor  were  exacted.  Property  qualifications  were  almost  as  completely 
set  aside.  While  in  some  of  the  older  States  the  Governor  had  to  possess 
£5,000,  and  even  £10,000,  Ohio's  Governor  was  simply  required  to  be  a 
resident  and  an  owner  of  land.  As  regards  inheritances,  the  English  law 
of  primogeniture  which  remained  unaltered  in  some  of  the  older  States, 
and  in  New  England  generally  took  the  form  of  a  double  portion  to  the 
oldest  son,  was  completely  set  aside,  and  all  children  of  the  same  parents 
became  entitled  to  the  same  rights-.  That  Ohio  thus  led  the  way  in  the 
democratic  advance  was  due  to  the  fact  that  its  constitution  was  framed 
when  these  ideas  had  already  become  ascendant  in  the  hearts  of  the  people, 
and  the  failure  of  the  clergy  of  New  England  was  due  to  their  trying  to 
keep  alive  institutions  which  were  the  offspring  of  another  age,  and  could 
not  long'survive  it. 

For  its  distrust  of  the  new  democracy  New  England  Federalism  paid 
heavily  in  the  isolation,  defeat,  and  destruction  which  shortly  awaited  it. 
When  the  new  democratic  administration  had  fully  reduced  Federal  taxation 
and  shown  its  capacity  for  government,  the  more  liberal-minded  of  the 
Federalists  went  over  to  the  Democrats.  Even  Massachusetts  gave  a 


366  OE  VEL  OPMENT  OF  DEM  OCR  A  TIC  INSTITUTIONS 

majority  for  Jefferson   in    1804,  and  when  the  extreme   Federalists  became 
more  extreme  through  the  loss  of  their   Liberal  contingent, 

The  Decay  and  &  . 

Disappear-        and  called  the  Hartford  Convention,  in  1814,  Federalism  died 

ance  of  Fed-     of  j^s  own  excesses.     The  policy  of  the  democratic  adminis- 
tration toward  England  may  not  have  been  wise,  but  the  pro- 
posal of  secession  in  order  to  resist  it  made   Federalism  almost  synonymous 
with  toryism  and  disloyalty. 

For  a  number  of  years  after  the  close  of  the  war  of  1812  there  was 
really  only  one  political  party  in  the  United  States.  In  1824,  when  the  con- 
test was  so  close  between  Jackson,  Adams  and  Clay,  each  of  these  contest- 
ants was  a  "  Democratic  Republican,"  and  it  would  have  been  hard  to  tell 
what  questions  of  policy  divided  their  followers  ;  though  Jackson's  followers, 
as  a  rule,  cared  most  for  the  extension  of  the  political  rights  of  the  poorer 
classes,  and  least  for  that  policy  of  protection  which  the  war  had  made  an 
important  issue,  by  cutting  off  commerce  and  thus  calling  into  being  exten- 
sive manufacturing:  interests.  That  the  followers  of  Clay 

A  Period  With-     _       „  .    .         .    ,  , 

out  a  Party  nnally  voted  for  Adams  may  have  been  due  to  sympathy  upon 
this  question  of  the  tariff.  In  1828  something  akin  to  party 
lines  were  drawn  upon  the  question  of  the  national  bank,  and  the  victory  of 
Jackson  provoked  the  hostility  of  the  masses  toward  that  institution,  which 
certainly  enriched  its  stockholders  to  such  an  extent  as  to  make  them  a 
favored  class.  The  Tariff  Act,  passed  in  1828,  made  the  tariff  question 
thenceforth  the  dividing  question  in  our  national  politics  until  slavery  took 
its  place. 

Most  of  the  absolute  free-traders  were  supporters  of  Jackson,  but  when 
South  Carolina  passed  its  Nullification  Act  as  a  protest  against  the  "  tariff 
of  abominations,"  as  it  was  called,  President  Jackson  promptly  declared  that 
'*  the  Union  must  and  shall  be  preserved,"  and  forced  the  recalcitrant  State 
to  renew  its  allegiance  to  the  National  Government.  By  the  end  of  Jack- 
son's administration  there  were  again  two  distinct  parties  in  the  United 
States ;  the  one  advocating  a  high  tariff  and  extensive  national  improve- 
ments by  the  Federal  Government,  and  the  other  advocating  a  low  tariff' 
and  the  restriction  of  national  expenditures  to  the  lowest  possible  limit.  . 
The  former  party — the  Whig — was,  of  course,  in  favor  of  a  liberal  construc- 
tion of  the  Constitution  and  the  extension  of  powers  to  the  National  Gov- 
ernment, while  the  latter  advocated  "  strict  construction "  and  "  State 
rights." 

Jackson  belonged  to  the  latter  party,  and  in  1836  was  able  to  transfer 
the  succession  to  Van  Buren.  But  in  1840  the  Whigs  swept  the  country, 
electing  Harrison  and  Tyler  after  the  most  picturesque  Presidential 


DE  VEL  OPMENT  OF  DEMOCRA  TIC  INSTITUTIONS  367 

campaign  ever  known   in   America.     All  the  financial  ills  from  which  the 
country  was  suffering  were  for  the  time  attributed  to  Van  Buren's  economic 
policy,  and    his    alleged    extravagance    at   the  White    House    Riseofthe 
enabled  the  Whigs  to  arouse  the  enthusiasm  of  the  poor  for      Democratic 
their  candidate,  who  was  claimed  to  live  in  a  log  cabin  and      and  whig 
drink  hard  cider.     During  the  next  four  years,  however,  there 
was  a  reaction,  and  in   1844  Polk  was  elected  upon  the  platform  on  which 
Van  Buren  had  stood.      It  is  true  that  in  Pennsylvania  the  Democratic  cam- 
paign cry  was,  "  Polk,  Dallas  and  the  tariff  of  '42,"  which  was  a  high  tariff  ; 
but  in  most  of  the  country  Democracy  meant  "  free  trade  and  sailors'  rights." 
From   this  time  on,  the  Whig  party  grew  weaker  and   the  Democratic 
party  stronger.      It  is  true  that   the  Whigs   elected  General  Taylor  in  1848. 
The  revenue   tariff  law  passed  by  the  Democrats  in  1846  was  not   changed 
until   the   still   lower  tariff  of   1857  was  enacted.      By  1852  the  Whig  party 
had  so  declined  that  it  was  hardly  stronger  than  the  old  Federalist  party  at 
the  close  of  Jefferson's  first  term.    But  just  as  the  Democratic  party  became 
able  to  boast  of  its  strength,  a  new  party  came  into  being  which  adopted  the 
principles  of  the   free-soil   wing  of   the   old    Democratic   party,   chose   the 
name  of  "  Republican  Party,"  swept  into  its  ranks  the  remnants  of  various 

political  organizations  of  the  past,  and  in  its  second   national    . 

i  j    A  i       i  T  •         i  -i  .  .       The  Origin  ana 

campaign  elected  Abraham  Lincoln  to  the  presidency.    In  this      character  of 

readjustment  of  parties  the  pro-slavery  Whigs  went  over  to  the  Republi- 
the  Democrats  and  the  anti-slavery  Democrats  went  over  to 
the  Republicans.  The  bolting  Democrats  claimed,  with  truth,  to  maintain 
the  principles  held  by  their  party  from  the  time  of  Jefferson  down,  but  the 
party  as  a  whole  followed  the  interests  of  its  most  powerful  element  instead 
of  the  principles  of  its  founder.  In  the  States  from  Ohio  west,  where  upon 
economic  questions  the  Democratic  party  had  swept  everything  by  increas- 
ing majorities  since  1840,  the  bolting  element  was  so  great  that  all  of  these 
States  were  landed  in  the  Republican  column.  One  great  Church — the 
Methodist — which  before  had  been,  as  a  rule,  Democratic  in  politics,  now 
became  solidly  Republican. 

From  time  to  time,  in  the  succeeding  years,  a  variety  of  political  organ- 
izations, of  minor  importance,  rose  and  declined.     But  none  of  national  sig- 
nificance were  added  to  the  two  great  parties  until  the  Presidential  campaigns 
of  1892  and  1896,  when  a  new  organization,  known   as   the    People's  party, 
came  into  prominence.     The  principles   distinguishing  it  from    The  People's 
the  old  Democratic  and  Republican  parties  were  its  demand      Party  and  its 
for  a  currency  issued  by  the  general  Government  only,  without      Principles 
the  intervention  of  banks  of  issue,  and  the  free  and  unrestricted  coinage  of 


368  DEVELOPMENT  OF  DEMOCRATIC  INSTITUTIONS 

silver  and  gold  at  the  ratio  of  16  to  i,  regardless  of  foreign  nations.  It  de- 
manded further  that  the  Government,  in  payment  of  its  obligations,  should 
use  its  option  as  to  the  kind  of  lawful  money  in  which  they  were  to  be  paid  ; 
should  establish  and  collect  a  graduated  income  tax  ;  and  should  own  and 
operate  the  railroads  and  telegraph  lines  in  the  interests  of  the  people.  Its 
general  tendency  was  to  favor  what  is  known  as  "  Paternalism  in  govern- 
ment," the  existing  form  in  America  of  what  is  known  as  Socialism  in 
Europe.  This  party  found  its  chief  strength  among  the  farmers,  who  be- 
lieved it  possible  and  right  for  the  Government  to  pass  laws  to  suppress 
"  trusts "  and  monopolies,  and  also  to  favor  the  agricultural  and  laboring 
classes. 

The  history  of  American  politics  up  to  the  time  of  the  introduction  of 
the  new  economic  questions  by  the  labor  unions  in  the  East,  and  the  farmer's 
unions  in  the  West  and  South,  has  been  the  history  of  the  gradual  extension 
of  political  rights.  The  Federalist  party  gave  us  the  Constitution  ;  the  old 
Democratic  party  gave  us  white  manhood  suffrage  ;  the  Republican  party 
gave  us  universal  suffrage.  What  the  People's  party  may  give  us  remains 
for  the  future  to  demonstrate.  The  glory  of  America's  past  is  that  she  has 
been  continually  progressing ;  that  she  has  proven  to  the  world  the  capacity 
of  the  whole  people  for  self-government. 


CHATPER   XXV 

America's  Answer  to  the  British  Claim  of  the  Right 

of  Search. 

BY  their  first  war  with  Great  Britain  our  forefathers  asserted  and  main- 
tained their  right  to  independent  national  existence  ;  by  their  second 
war  with  Great  Britain,  they  claimed  and  obtained  equal  considera- 
tion in  international  affairs.  The  War  of  1812  was  not  based  on  a  single 
cause;  it  was  undertaken  from  mixed  motives, — partly  political,  partly  com- 
mercial, partly  patriotic.  It  was  always  unpopular  with  a  great  number  of 
the  American  people  ;  it  was  far  from  logical  in  some  of  its  positions  ;  it  was 
perhaps  precipitated  by  party  clamor.  But,  despite  all  these  facts,  it  remains 
true  that  this  war  established  once  for  all  the  position  of  the  United  States 
as  an  equal  power  among  the  powers.  Above  all — clearing  away  the  petty 
political  and  partisan  aspects  of  the  struggle — we  find  that  in  The  Causes 
it  the  United  States  stood  for  a  strong,  sound,  and  universally  of  the  War 
beneficial  principle,  that  of  the  rights  of  neutral  nations  in 
time  of  war.  "  Free  ships  make  free  goods "  is  a  maxim  of  international 
law  now  universally  recognized,  but  at  the  opening  of  the  century  it  was  a 
theory,  supported,  indeed,  by  good  reasoning,  but  practically  disregarded  by 
the  most  powerful  nations.  It  was  almost  solely  to  the  stand  taken  by  the 
United  States  in  1812  that  the  final  settlement  of  this  disputed  principle 
was  due. 

The  cause  of  the  War  of  1812,  which  appealed  most  strongly  to  the 
patriotic  feelings  of  the  common  people,  though,  perhaps,  not  in  itself  so 
intrinsically  important  as  that  just  referred  to,  was  unquestionably  the 
impressment  by  Great  Britain  of  sailors  from  American  ships.  No  doubt 
great  numbers  of  English  sailors  did  desert  from  their  naval  vessels  and 
avail  themselves  of  the  easier  service  and  better  treatment  of  the  American 
merchant  ships.  Great  Britain,  in  the  exigencies  of  her  des-  _ 

British 

perate  contest  with  Napoleon,  was  straining  every  nerve  to      impressment 
strengthen  her  already  powerful  navy,  and  the  press-gang  was      of  American 
constantly  at  work  in  English  seaports.      Once  on  board   a 
British  man-of-war,  the  impressed  sailor  was  subject  to  overwork,  bad  rations, 
and  the  lash.     That  British  sailors   fought  as  gallantly  as   they  did  under 

369 


370        ANSWER  TO  BRITISH  CLAIM  OF  THE  RIGHT  OF  SEARCH 

this  regime  will  always  remain  a  wonder.    But  it  is  certain  that  they  deserted 
in  considerable  numbers,  and  that  they  found  in  the  rapidly-growing  com- 
mercial prosperity  of  our  carrying  trade  a  tempting  chance  of  employment. 
Great   Bricain,  with  a  large   contempt   for   the  naval  weakness  of  the 
United  States,  assumed,  rather  than  claimed,  the  right  to  stop  our  merchant 
vessels  on  the  high  seas,  to   examine   their  crews,  and  to  take  as  her  own 
any  British  sailors  among  them.     This   was  bad  enough   in    itself,   but  the 
way  in  which  the  search  was  carried  out  was  worse.    Every  form  of  insolence 
and   overbearing  was   exhibited.      The  pretense    of    claiming 
American          British  deserters  covered  what  was  sometimes  barefaced  and 
Ships  and         outrageous  kidnapping   of  Americans.     The    British    officers 
went  so  far  as  to  lay  the  burden  of  proof  of  nationality  in  each 
case  upon  the  sailor  himself ;  if  he  were  without  papers  proving  his  identity 
he  was  at  once  assumed  to  be  a  British  subject.     To  such  an  extent  was  this 
insult  to   our   flag  carried,  that  our  Government  had   the  record  of  about 
forty-five  hundred  cases  of  impressment  from  our  ships  between  the  years 
of   1803  and   1810;  and  when   the  War   of   1812  broke  out  the  number  of 
American  sailors  serving  against  their  will  in  British  war  vessels  was  vari- 
ously computed  to  be  from  six  to  fourteen  thousand.      It  is  even  recorded 
that   in  some   cases  American  ships   were  obliged   to   return  home  in   the 
middle   of  their  voyages  because   their  crews  had  been   so  diminished   in 
number  by  the  seizures  made  by  British  officers  that  they  were  too  short- 
handed  to  procceed.      In  not  a  few  cases  these  depredations  led  to  blood- 
shed. 

The  greatest  outrage  of  all,  and  one  which  stirred  the  blood  of  Ameri- 
cans to  the  righting  point,  was  the  capture  of  an  American  war  vessel,  the 
Chesapeake,  by  the  British  man-of-war,  the  Leopard.  The  latter  was  by  far 
the  more  powerful  vessel,  and  the  Chesapeake  was  quite  unprepared  for 
The  Affair  of  action  ;  nevertheless,  her  commander  refused  to  accede  to  a 
the «« Chesa-  demand  that  his  crew  be  overhauled  in  search  for  British 

peake"and      deserters.     Thereupon   the   Leopard  poured   broadside    after 
the  "Leopard" .  ,   .  ,     .          .,  -i  i         n  1         T-I  \ 

broadside  into  her  until  her  nag  was  struck.      1  hree  Americans 

were  killed  and  eighteen  wounded  ;  four  were  taken  away  as  alleged  desert- 
ers ;  of  these,  three  were  afterwards  returned,  while  in  one  case  the  charge 
was  satisfactorily  proved  and  the  man  was  hanged.  The  whole  affair  was 
without  the  slightest  justification  under  the  law  of  nations  and  was  in  itself 
ample  ground  for  war.  Great  Britain,  however,  in  a  quite  ungracious  .and 
tardy  way,  apologized  and  offered  reparation.  This  incident  took  place  six 
years  before  the  actual  declaration  of  war.  But  the  outrage  rankled  during 
all  that  time,  and  nothing  did  more  to  fan  the  anti-British  feeling  which  was 


ANSWER  TO  BRITISH  CLAIM  OF  THE  RIGHT  OF  SEARCH        371 

already  so  strong  in  the  rank  and  file  of  Americans,  especially  in  the  Demo- 
cratic (or,  as  it  was  then  often  called,  the  Republican)  party.  It  was  such 
deeds  as  this  that  led  Henry  Clay  to  exclaim,  "  Not  content  with  seizing 
upon  all  our  property  which  falls  within  her  rapacious  grasp,  the  personal 
rights  of  our  countrymen — rights  which  must  forever  be  sacred — are  tramp- 
led on  and  violated  by  the  impressment  of  our  seamen.  What  are  we  to 
gain  by  war  ?  What  are  we  not  to  lose  by  peace  ?  Commerce,  character,  a 
nation's  best  treasure,  honor  ! " 

The  interference  with  American  commerce  was  also  a  serious  threat  to 
the  cause  of  peace.      In  the  early  years  of  the  century  Great  Britain  was  at 
war  not  only  with  France,  but  with  other  European  countries.      Both  Great 
Britain    and    France    adopted   in   practice   the   most   extreme   The  Era 
theories    of    non-intercourse    between     neutral    and    hostile      of  Paper 
nations.      It    was    the    era    of    "paper   blockades."      In    1806 
England,  for  instance,  declared  that  eight  hundred  miles  of  the  European 
coast  were  to  be  considered  blockaded,  whereupon  Napoleon,  not  to  be  out- 
done, declared  the  entire  Kingdom  of  Great  Britain  to  be  under  blockade. 

Up  to  a  certain  point  the  interruption  of  the  neutral  trade  relations 
between  the  countries  of  Europe  was  to  the  commercial  advantage  of 
America.  Our  carrying  trade  grew  and  prospered  wonderfully.  Much 
of  this  trade  consisted  in  taking  goods  from  the  colonies  of  European 
nations,  bringing  them  to  the  United  States,  then  trans-shipping  them  and 
conveying  them  to  the  parent  nation.  This  was  allowable  under  the  inter- 
national law  of  the  time,  although  the  direct  carrying  of  goods  by  the 
neutral  ship  from  the  colony  to  the  parent  nation  (the  latter,  of  course, 
being  at  war)  was  forbidden.  But  by  her  famous  "Orders  in  Council" 
Great  Britain  absolutely  forbade  this  system  of  trans-shipment  as  to  nations 
with  whom  she  was  at  war.  American  vessels  engaged  in  this  form  of  trade 
were  seized  and  condemned  by.  English  prize  courts.  Naturally,  France 
followed  Great  Britain's  example  and  even  went  further.  Our  merchants, 
who  had  actually  been  earning  double  freights  under  the  old  system,  now 
found  that  their  commerce  was  woefully  restricted.  At  first  it  was  thought 
that  the  unfair  restriction  might  be  punished  by  retaliatory  measures,  and  a 
quite  illogical  analogy  was  drawn  from  the  effect  produced  on  Great  Britain 
before  the"  Revolution  by  the  refusal  of  the  colonies  to  receive  goods  on 
which  a  tax  had  been  imposed.  So  President  Jefferson's  administration 
resorted  to  the  most  unwise  measure  that  could  be  thought  of — an  absolute 
embargo  on  our  own  ships,  which  were  prohibited  from  leaving  port. 

This  measure  was  passed  in  1807,  and  its  immediate  result  was  to 
reduce  the  exports  of  this  country  from  nearly  fifty  million  dollars'  worth  to 


372         ANSWER  TO  BRITISH  CLAIM  OF  THE  RIGHT  OF  SEARCH 

nine  million  dollars'  worth  in  a  single  year.     This  was  evidently  anything 
but  profitable,  and  the  act  was  changed  so   as  to   forbid  only  commercial 
Jefferson          intercourse  with  Great  Britain  and  France  and  their  colonies, 
and  the          with  a  proviso  that  the  law  should  be  abandoned  as  regards 
Embargo       either  of  these  countries  which  should  repeal  its  objectionable 
decrees.     The  French  government  moved  in  the  matter  first,  but  only  con- 
ditionally.     Our  non-intercourse  act,  however,  was  after   1810  in  force  only 
'against  Great  Britain.     That  our  claims  of  wrong  were  equally,  or  nearly 
so,  as  great  against  France  in   this   matter   cannot  be  doubted.      But  the 
popular  feeling  was  stronger  against  Great  Britain  ;  a  war  with   England 
was  popular  with  the  mass  of  the  Democrats ;    and  it  was  the  refusal  of 
England  to  accept  our  conditions  which  finally  led  to  the  declaration  of  war. 
By  a  curious  chain  of  circumstances  it  happened,  however,  that  between  the 
time  when   Congress  declared  war  (June  18,  1812)  and  the  date  when  the 
War  Declared      news  of  this  declaration  was  received  in  England,  the  latter 
Against  country  had  already  revoked  her  famous  "Orders  in  Council." 

In  point  of  fact,  President  Madison  was  very  reluctant  to 
declare  war,  though  the  Federalists  always  took  great  pleasure  in  speaking 
of  this  as  "Mr.  Madison's  war."  The  Federalists  throughout  considered 
the  war  unnecessary  and  the  result  of  partisan  feeling  and  unreasonable 
prejudice. 

It  is  peculiarly  grateful  to  American  pride  that  this  war,  undertaken  in 
defence  of  our  maritime  interests  and  to  uphold  the  honor  of  our  flag  upon 
the  high  seas,  resulted  in  a  series  of  naval  victories  brilliant  in  the  extreme. 
It  was  not,  indeed,  at  first  thought  that  this  would  be  chiefly  a  naval  war. 
President  Madison  was  at  one  time  strongly  inclined  to  keep  our  war  vessels 
in  port ;  but,  happily,  other  counsels  prevailed.  The  disparity  between  the 
American  and  British  navies  was  certainly  disheartening.  The  United 
States  had  seven  or  eight  frigates  and  a  few  sloops,  brigs,  and  gunboats, 
while  the  sails  of  England's  navy  whitened  every  sea,  and  her  ships  cer- 
tainly outnumbered  ours  by  fifty  to  one.  On  the  other  hand,  her  hands 
were 'tied  to  a  great  extent  by  the  stupendous  European  war  in  which  she 
was  involved.  She  had  to  defend  her  commerce  from  formidable  enemies, 
The  British  and  anc^  cou^  spare  but  a  small  part  of  her  naval  strength  for 
American  battle  with  the  new  foe.  That  this  new  foe  was  despised  by 
Navies  Com-  the  great  power  which  claimed,  not  without  reason,  to  be  the 
mistress  of  the  seas,  was  not  unnatural.  But  soon  we  find  a 
rament  raised  in  Parliament  about  the  reverses  of  its  navy,  which  were  such 
as  "  English  officers  and  English  sailors  had  not  before  been  used  to, 
particularly  from  such  a  contemptible  navy  as  that  of  America  had  always 


ANSWER  TO  BRITISH  CLAIM  OF  THE  RIGHT  OF  SEARCH        373 

been  held  to  be."  The  fact  is,  that  the  restriction  of  American  commerce 
had  made  it  possible  for  our  naval  officers  to  take  their  pick  of  a  remark- 
ably fine  body  of  native  American  seamen,  naturally  brave  and  intelligent, 
and  thoroughly  well  trained  in  all  seamanlike  experiences.  These  men  were 
in  many  instances  filled  with  a  spirit  of  resentment  at  British  insolence, 
having  either  themselves  been  the  victims  of  the  aggressions  which  we  have 
described,  or  having  seen  their  friends  compelled  to  submit  to  these  insolent 
acts.  The  very  smallness  of  our  navy,  too,  was  in  a  measure  its  strength  ; 
the  competition  for  active  service  among  those  bearing  commissions  was 
great,  and  there  was  never  any  trouble  in  finding  officers  of  proved  sagacity 
and  courage. 

At  the  outset,  however,  the  policy  determined  on  by  the  administration 
was  not  one  of  naval  aggression.      It  was  decided   to  attack  England  from 
her  Canadian  colonies.    This  plan  of  campaign,  however  reasonable  it  might 
seem  to  a  strategist,  failed  wretchedly  in  execution.     The  first   The  War  on 
year  of  the  war,  so  far  as  regards  the  land  campaigns,  showed      the  Canada 
nothing  but   reverses   and   fiascoes.     There  was  a  long    and 
thinly  settled  border  country,  in  which  our  slender  forces  struggled  to  hold 
their  own  against  the  barbarous  Indian  onslaughts,  making  futile  expeditions 
across  the  border  into  Canada,  and  resisting  with  some  success  the  similar 
expeditions  by  the  Canadian  troops.    One  of  the  complaints  which  led  to  the 
war  was  that  the  Indian  tribes  had  been  incited  against  our  settlers  by  the 
Canadian  authorities  and  had  been  promised  aid  from  Canada.    It  is  certain 
that  after  war  was  declared    British  officers   not   only  employed  Indians  as 
their  allies,  but,  in   some  instances  at  least,  paid  bounties  for  the  scalps   of 
American  settlers. 

The  Indian  war  planned  by  Tecumseh  had  just  been  put  down  by  Gen- 
eral (afterward  President)  Harrison.      No   doubt  Tecumseh  was   a   man   of 
more   elevated  ambition  and  more  humane  instincts  than  one  often  finds  in 
an  Indian  chief.      His  hope  to  unite  the  tribes  and  to  drive  the  whites  out 
of  his  country  has  a  certain  nobility  of  purpose   and  breadth  of  view.      But 
this  scheme  had  failed,  and  the  Indian  warriors,  still   inflamed  for  war,  were 
only  too  eager  to  assist  the  Canadian  forces  in  a  desultory  but   bloody  bor- 
der war.    The  strength  of  our  campaign  against  Canada  was  dissipated  in  an 
attempt   to   hold  Fort  Wayne,  Fort  Harrison,  and   other  garrisons  against 
Indian   attacks.     Still   more  disappointing  was  the   complete    Hull  and  the 
failure  of  the  attempt,  under  the  command  of  General  Hull,       Surrender  of 
to  advance  from  Detroit  into  Canada.      He  was  easily  driven 
back  to  Detroit,  and,  while  the  nation  was  confidently  waiting  to  hear  of  a 
bold  defence  of  that  place,  it  was  startled  by  the  news  of  Hull's  surrender 


374         ANSWER  TO  BRITISH  CLAIM  OF  THE  RIGHT  OF  SEARCH 

without  firing  a  gun,  and  under  circumstances  which  seemed  to  indicate 
either  cowardice  or  treachery.  Hull  was,  in  fact,  court-martialed  and  con- 
demned to  death,  and  was  only  pardoned  on  account  of  his  services  in  the 
war  of  1776. 

The  mortification  that  followed  the  land  campaign  of  1812  was  for- 
gotten in  the  joy  at  the  splendid  naval  victories  of  that  year.  Pre-eminent 
among  these  was  the  famous  sea-duel  between  the  frigates  Constitution  and 
Guerriere.  Every  one  knows  of  the  glory  of  Old  Ironsides,  and  this, 
though  the  greatest,  was  only  one  of  many  victories  through  which  the 
name  of  the  Constitution  became  the  most  famed  and  beloved  of  all  that 
have  been  associated  with  American  ships.  She  was  a  fine  frigate,  carrying 
forty-four  guns,  and  though  English  journals  had  ridiculed  her  as  "a  bunch 
of  pine  boards  under  a  bit  of  striped  bunting,"  it  was  not  long  before  they 
were  busily  engaged  in  trying  to  prove  that  she  was  too  large  a  vessel  to  be 
properly  called  a  frigate,  and  that  she  greatly  out-classed  her  opponent  in 
The " Constitu-  metal  and  men.  It  is  true  that  the  Constitution  carried  six 
tion"andthe  more  guns  and  a  few  more  men  than  the  Guerrifere,  but  all 
allowances  being  made,  her  victory  was  a  naval  triumph  of  the 
first  magnitude.  Captain  Isaac  Hull,  who  commanded  her,  had  just  before 
the  engagement  proved  his  superior  seamanship  by  escaping  from  a  whole 
squadron  of  British  vessels,  out-sailing  and  out-manceuvring  them  at  every 
point.  It  was  on  August  19,  1812,  that  he  descried  the  Guerriere.  Both  vessels 
at  once  cleared  for  action  and  came  together  with  the  greatest  eagerness  on 
both  sides  for  the  engagement.  Though  the  battle  lasted  but  half  an  hour,  it 
was  one  of  the  hottest  in  naval  annals.  At  one  time  the  Constitution  was 
on  fire,  and  both  ships  were  soon  seriously  crippled  by  injuries  to  their 
spars.  Attempts  to  board  each  other  were  thwarted  on  both  sides  by  the 
close  fire  of  ^mall  arms.  Here,  as  in  later  sea-fights  of  this  war,  the  accu- 
The  Glorious  rac^  anc^  s^^^  °^  ^le  American  gunners  were  something  mar- 
Victory  of  th«-  velous.  At  the  end  of  half  an  hour  the  Guerriere  had  lost 

Frigate  "C<m-  both  mainmast  and  foremast,  and  floated  as  a  helpless  hulk  in 
stitution  *'  .  T  T  .  ..,..-_ 

the  open  sea.      Her  surrender  was  no  discredit  to  her  officers, 

as  she  was  almost  in  a  sinking  condition.  It  was  hopeless  to  attempt  to  tow 
her  into  port,  and  Captain  Hull  transferred  his  prisoners  to  his  own  vessel 
and  set  fire  to  his  prize. 

In  this  engagement  the  American  frigate  had  only  seven  men  killed  and 
an  equal  number  wounded,  while  the  British  vessel  had  as  many  as  seventy- 
nine  men  killed  or  wounded.  The  conduct  of  the  American  seamen  was 
throughout  gallant  in  the  highest  degree.  Captain  Hull  put  it  on  record 
that  "  From  the  smallest  boy  in  the  ship  to  the  oldest  seaman  not  a  look  of 


ANSWER  TO  BRITISH  CLAIM  OF  THE  RIGHT  OF  SEARCH        375 

fear  was  seen.  They  all  went  into  action  giving  three  cheers  and  request- 
ing to  be  laid  close  alongside  the  enemy."  The  effect  of  this  victory  in  both 
America  and  England  was  extraordinary.  English  papers  long  refused  to 
believe  in  the  possibility  of  the  well-proved  facts,  while  in  America  the  whole 
country  joined  in  a  triumphal  shout  of  joy,  and  loaded  well-deserved  honors 
on  vessel,  captain,  officers,  and  men. 

The  chagrin  of  the  English  public  at  the  unexpected  result  of  this  sea- 
battle  was  changed  to  amazement  and  vexation  when,  one  after  another, 
there  followed  no  less  than  six  combats  of  the  same  duel-like  character,  in 
all  of  which  the  American  vessels  were  victorious.  The  first  was  between 
the  American  sloop  Wasp  and  the  English  brig  Frolic,  which  The  "Wasp" 
was  convoying  a  fleet  of  merchantmen.  The  fight  was  one  of  Captures  the 
the  most  desperate  in  the  war  ;  the  two  ships  were  brought  so 
close  together  that  their  gunners  could  touch  the  sides  of  the  opposing  ves- 
sels with  their  rammers.  Broadside  after  broadside  was  poured  into  the 
Frolic  by  the  Wasp,  which  obtained  the  superior  position  ;  but  her  sailors, 
too  excited  to  await  the  victory  which  was  sure  to  come  from  the  continued 
raking  of  the  enemy's  vessel,  rushed  upon  her  decks  without  orders  and  soon 
overpowered  her.  Again  the  British  loss  in  killed  and  wounded  was  large  ; 
that  of  the  Americans  very  small.  It  in  no  wise  detracted  from  the  glory 
of  this  victory  that  both  victor  and  prize  were  soon  captured  by  a  British 
man-of-war  of  immensely  superior  strength. 

Following  this    action,   Commodore    Stephen   Decatur,  in    the    frigate 

United  States,  attacked  the  Macedonian,  a  British  vessel  of  the    „ 

The  "United 

same    class,  and    easily  defeated    her,  bringing    her   into  New      states"  and 
York  harbor  on  New  Year's  Day,  1813,  where  he  received  an      the  "Mace- 
ovation  equal  to  that   offered  Captain  Hull.      The  same  result 
followed  the  attack  of  the  Constitution,  now  under  the  command  of  Commo- 
dore Bainbridge,  upon  the  British  Java.     The   latter  had  her  captain   and 
fifty  men  killed  and  about  one  hundred  wounded,  and  was  left  such  a  wreck 
that  it  was  decided  to  blow  her  up,  while   the  Constitution  suffered  so   little 
that  she  was  in  sport  dubbed  Old  Ironsides,  a  name  now  ennobled  by  a  poem 
which  has  been  in  every  school-boy's  mouth.     Other  naval  combats  resulted, 
in  the  great  majority  of  cases,  in  the   same  way  ;  in  all  unstinted  praise  was 
awarded  by  the  nations  of  the  world,  even  including  England  herself,,  to  the 
admirable  seamanship,  the  wonderful  gunnery,  and  the  personal  intrepidity  of 
our  naval  forces.     When  the  second  year  of  the  war  closed  our  little  navy 
had  captured   twenty-six  warships,   armed  with  560  guns,  while  it  had  lost 
only  seven  ships,  carrying  119  guns. 


376         ANSWER  TO  BRITISH  CLAIM  OF  THE  RIGHT  OF  SEARCH 

But,  if  the  highest  honors  of  the  war  were  thus  won  by  our  navy,  the 
most  serious  injury  materially  to  Great  Britain  was  in  the  devastation  of  her 
commerce  by  American  privateers.  No  less  than  two  hundred  and  fifty 
American  Pri-  °f  tnese  sea  guerrillas  were  afloat,  and  in  the  first  year  of  the 
vateers  and  war  they  captured  over  three  hundred  merchant  vessels,  some- 
times even  attacking  and  overcoming  the  smaller  class  of  war- 
ships. The  privateers  were  usually  schooners  armed  with  a  few  small  guns, 
but  carrying  one  long  cannon  mounted  on  a  swivel  so  that  it  could  be 
turned  to  any  point  of  the  horizon,  and  familiarly  known  as  Long  Tom. 
Of  course,  the  crews  were  influenced  by  greed  as  well  as  by  patriotism. 
Privateering  is  a  somewhat  doubtful  mode  of  warfare  at  the  best ;  but  inter- 
national law  permits  it,  and,  though  it  is  hard  to  dissociate  from  it  the 
aspect  of  legalized  piracy,  it  is  recognized  to  this  day.  In  the  most  recent 
war,  however,  the  Spanish-American,  neither  of  the  belligerent  nations 
indulged  in  this  relic  of  barbarism. 

If  privateering  were  ever  justifiable  it  was  in  the  war  now  under  con- 
sideration. As  Jefferson  said,  there  were  then  tens  of  thousands  of  seamen 
cut  off  by  the  war  from  their  natural  means  of  support  and  useless  to  their 
country  in  any  other  way,  while  by  "  licensing  private  armed  vessels,  the 
whole  naval  force  of  the  nation  was  truly  brought  to  bear  on  the  foe."  The 
havoc  wrought  on  British  trade  was  widespread  indeed  ;  altogether  between 
fifteen  hundred  and  two  thousand  prizes  were  taken  by  the  privateers.  To 
compute  the  value  of  these  prizes  is  impossible,  but  some  idea  may  be 
gained  from  the  single  fact  that  one  privateer,  the  Yankee,  in  a  cruise  of 
less  than  two  months  captured  five  brigs  and  four  schooners,  with  cargoes 
valued  at  over  half  a  million  dollars.  The  men  engaged  in  this  form  of 
warfare  were  bold  to  recklessness,  and  their  exploits  have  furnished  many  a 
tale  to  American  writers  of  romance. 

The    naval   combats  thus  far  mentioned  were  almost  always  of  single 
vessels.      For  battles  of  fleets  we  must  turn  from  the  salt  water  to  the  fresh, 
from  the  ocean  to  the  great  lakes.     The  control  of  the  waters 
the  Lakes         °f  Lake  Erie,   Lake  Ontario,  and  Lake  Champlain  was   ob- 
viously of  vast   importance,    in   view   of  the   continued   land- 
fighting  in   the  West   and  of  the  attempted   invasion  of  Canada  and   the 
threatened    counter-invasions.     The   British    had    the   great    advantage    of 
being  able  to  reach  the  lakes  by  the  St.  Lawrence,  while  our  lake  navies  had 
to  be  constructed  after  the  war  began.     One  such  little  navy  had  been  built 
at  Presque  Isle,  now  Erie,  on  Lake  Erie.      It  comprised  two  brigs  of  twenty 
guns  and  several   schooners  and  gunboats.      It  must  be   remembered  that 
everything  but  the  lumber  needed  for  the  vessels  had  to  be  brought  through 


ANSWER  TO  BRITISH  CLAIM  OF  THE  RIGHT  OF  SEARCH         377 

the  forests  by  land  from  the  eastern  seaports,  and  the  mere  problem  of 
transportation  was  a  serious  one.  When  finished,  the  fleet  was  put  in  com- 
mand of  Oliver  Hazard  Perry.  Watching  his  time  (and,  it  is  said,  taking 
advantage  of  the  carelessness  of  the  British  commander,  who  went  on 
shore  to  dinner  one  Sunday,  when  he  should  have  been  watching  Perry's 
movements),  the  American  commander  drew  his  fleet  over  the  bar  which 
had  protected  it  while  in  harbor  from  the  onslaughts  of  the  British  fleet. 
To  get  the  brigs  over  this  bar  was  a  work  of  time  and  great  difficulty  ;  an 
attack  at  that  hour  by  the  British  would  certainly  have  ended  in  the  total 
destruction  of  the  fleet.  This  feat  accomplished,  Perry,  in  his  flagship,  the 
Laivrence,  headed  a  fleet  of  ten  vessels,  fifty-five  guns  and  four  hundred 
men.  Opposed  to  him  was  Captain  Barclay  with  six  ships,  sixty-five  guns, 
and  also  about  four  hundred  men.  The  British  for  several  weeks  avoided 
the  conflict,  but  in  the  end  were  cornered  and  forced  to  fight.  It  was  at 
the  beginning  of  this  battle  that  Perry  displayed  the  flag  perry's  Great 
bearing  Lawrence's  famous  dying  words,  "  Don't  give  up  the  Victory  on 
ship  !"  No  less  famous  is  his  dispatch  announcing  the  result  Lake  Erie 
in  the  words,  "We  have  met  the  enemy  and  they  are  ours."  The  victory 
was  indeed  a  complete  and  decisive  one  ;  all  six  of  the  enemy's  ships  were 
captured,  and  their  loss  was  nearly  double  that  of  Perry's  forces.  The 
complete  control  of  Lake  Erie  was  assured ;  that  of  Lake  Ontario  had 
already  been  gained  by  Commodore  Chauncey. 

Perry's  memorable  victory  opened  the  way  for  important  land  opera- 
tions by  General  Harrison,  who  now  marched  from  Detroit  with  the  design 
of  invading  Canada.  He  engaged  with  Proctor's  mingled  body  of  British 
troops  and  Indians,  and  by  the  battle  of  the  Thames  drove 

•       i        t    .-     -n  •  •  t      r  r    ^  i     The  Battle  of 

back    the    British    from    that    part    of    Canada   and   restored      the  Thames 
matters    to    the  position   in  which    they  stood   before  Hull's 
deplorable    surrender   of  Detroit — and,    indeed,    of   all    Michigan — to    the 
British.      In   this  battle  the   Indian  chief,  Tecumseh,  fell,  and  about  three 
hundred  of  the  British  and  Indians  were  killed  on  the  field.     The  hold  of 
our  enemies  on  the  Indian  tribes  was  greatly  broken  by  this  defeat. 

Previous  to  this  the  land  campaigns  had  been  ma.,  .ced  by  a  succession 
of  minor  victories  and  defeats.  In  the  West  a  force  of  Americans  under 
General  Winchester  had  been  captured  at  the  River  Raisin,  where  there 
took  place  an  atrocious  massacre  of  prisoners  by  the  Indians,  who  were 
quite  beyond  restraint  from  their  white  allies.  On  the  other  hand,  the 
Americans  had  captured  the  city  of  York,  now  Toronto,  though  at  the  cost 
of  their  leader,  General  Pike,  who,  with  two  hundred  of  his  men,  was 
destroyed  by  the  explosion  of  a  magazine.  Fort  George  had  also  been 


378         ANSWER  TO  BRITISH  CLAIM  OF  THE  RIGHT  OF  SEARCH 

captured  by  the  Americans  and  an  attack  on  Sackett's  Harbor  had  been 
gallantly  repulsed.  Following  the  battle  of  the  Thames,  extensive  opera- 
tions of  an  aggressive  kind  were  planned,  looking  toward  the  capture  of 
Montreal  and  the  invasion  of  Canada  by  way  of  Lakes  Ontario  and  Cham- 
plain.  Unhappily,  jealousy  between  the  American  Generals  Wilkinson  and 
Hampton  resulted  in  a  lack  of  concert  in  their  military  operations,  and  the 
expedition  became  a  complete  fiasco. 

One  turns  for  consolation  from  the  mortifying  record  of  Wilkinson's 
expedition  to  the  story  of  the  continuous  successes  which  accompanied  the 
naval  operations  of  1813.  Captain  Lawrence,  in  the  Hornet,  won  a  com- 
plete victory  over  the  English  brig  Peacock ;  our  brig,  the  Enterprise,  cap- 
tured the  Boxer,  and  other  equally  welcome  victories  were  reported.  One 
distinct  defeat  marred  the  record — that  of  our  fine  brig,  the  Chesapeake, 
commanded  by  Captain  Lawrence,  which  was  captured  after  one  of  the 
most  hard-fought  contests  of  the  war  by  the  British  brig,  the  Shannon. 
,  Lawrence  himself  fell  mortally  wounded,  exclaiming  as  he 

mous Saying,    was  carried  away,  "Tell  the  men  not  to  give  up  the  ship,  but 

"Don't  Give     ficrht  her  till  she  sinks."     It  was  a  paraphrase  of  this  exclama- 
Up  the  Ship."      .&          ,  .   ,     „  11    •  •         i    •         i        u       i 

tion  which  rerry  used   as  a   rallying   signal   in   the   battle   on 

Lake  Erie.  Despite  his  one  defeat,  Captain  Lawrence's  fame  as  a  gallant 
seaman  and  high-minded  patriot  was  untarnished,  and  his  death  was  more 
deplored  throughout  the  country  than  was  the  loss  of  his  ship. 

In  the  latter  part  of  the  war  England  was  enabled  to  send  large  rein- 
forcements both  to  her  army  and  navy  engaged  in  the  American  campaigns. 
Events  in  Europe  seemed  in  1814  to  insure  peace  for  at  least  a  time.  Na- 
poleon's power  was  broken  ;  the  Emperor  himself  was  exiled  at  Elba ;  and 
Great  Britain  at  last  had  her  hands  free.  But  before  the  reinforcements 
reached  this  country,  our  army  had  won  greater  credit  and  had  shown  more 
military  skill  by  far  than  were  evinced  in  its  earlier  operations.  Along  the 
line  of  the  Niagara  River  active  fighting  had  been  going  on.  In  the  battle 
of  Chippewa,  the  capture  of  Fort  Erie,  the  engagement  at  Lundy's  Lane, 
and  the  defence  of  Fort  Erie  the  troops,  under  the  command  of  Generals 
Winfield  Scott  and  Brown,  had  "more  than  held  their  own  against  superior 
forces,  and  had  won  from  British  officers  the  admission  that  they  fought  as 

well   under  fire  as    regular    troops.     More    encouraging  still 
Macdonough's  &  r  .  /-r 

Victory  on        was   the  total   defeat   01   the    plan   ot   invasion  trom    Canada 

Lake  Cham-     undertaken  by  the   now  greatly  strengthened  British   forces. 

These  numbered   twelve  thousand   men  and  were  supported 

by  a   fleet  on   Lake  Champlain.     Their   operations  were  directed  against 

Plattsburg,  and  in  the  battle  on  the  lake,  usually  called  by  the  name  of  that 


ANSWER  TO  BRITISH  CLAIM  OF  THE  RIGHT  TO  SEARCH         379 

town,  the  American  flotilla,  under  the  command  of  Commodore  Mac- 
donough,  completely  routed  the  British  fleet.  As  a  result  the  English  army 
also  beat  a  rapid  and  undignified  retreat  to  Canada.  This  was  the  last 
important  engagement  to  take  place  in  the  North. 

Meanwhile  expeditions  of  considerable  size  were  directed  by  the  British 
against  our  principal  Southern  cities.  One  of  these  brought  General  Ross 
with  five  thousand  men,  chiefly  the  pick  of  the  Duke  of  Wellington's  army, 
into  the  Bay  of  Chesapeake.  Nothing  was  more  discreditable  in  the  military 
strategy  of  our  administration  than  the  fact  that  at  this  time  Washington 
was  left  unprotected,  though  in  evident  danger.  General  Ross  marched 
straight  upon  the  capital,  easily  defeated  at  Bladensburg  an  inferior  force 
of  raw  militia — who  fought,  however,  with  much  courage — seized  the  city, 
and  carried  out  his  intention  of  destroying  the  public  buildings  and  a  great 
part  of  the  town.  Most  of  the  public  archives  had  been  removed.  Ross's 
conduct  in  the  burning  of  Washington,  though  of  a  character  common 
enough  in  modern  warfare,  has  been  condemned  as  semi-barbarous  by  many 
writers.  The  achievement  was  greeted  with  enthusiasm  by  the  English 
papers,  but  was  really  of  much  less  importance  than  they  supposed.  Wash- 
ington at  that  time  was  a  straggling  town  of  only  eight  thousand  inhabit- 
ants;  its  public  buildings  were  not  at  all  adequate  to  the  The  Burning  of 
demands  of  the  future;  and  an  optimist  might  even  consider  the  American 
the  destruction  of  the  old  city  as  a  public  benefit,  for  it  CaPltal 
enabled  Congress  to  adopt  the  plans  which  have  since  led  to  the  making  of 
the  most  beautiful  city  of  the  country,  if  not  of  the  world. 

A  similar  attempt  upon  Baltimore  was  less  successful  The  people  of 
that  city  made  a  brave  defence  and  hastily  threw  up  extensive  fortifications. 
In  the  end  the  British  fleet,  after  a  severe  bombardment  of  Fort  McHenry, 
was  driven  off.  The  British  admiral  had  boasted  that  Fort  McHenry  would 
yield  in  a  few  hours  ;  and  two  days  after,  when  its  flag  was  still  flying, 
Francis  S.  Key  was  inspired  by  its  sight  to  compose  our  far-famed  national 
ode,  the  "  Star  Spangled  Banner." 

A  still  larger  expedition  of   British    troops  soon  after  landed  on  the 
Louisiana  coast  and  marched  to  the  attack  of  New  Orleans.     Here  General 
Andrew  Jackson  was  in  command.      He   had  already  distinguished  himself 
during  the  war  by  putting  down  with  a  strong  hand  the  hostile  Creek  Indians, 
who  had  been  incited  by  English  envoys  to  warfare  against  our  southern 
settlers;  and  in  April,  1814,  William  Weathersford,  the  half-   Jacksonand 
breed  chief,  had  surrendered  in  person  to  Jackson.     General      the  Creek 
Packenham,  who  .commanded  the  five   thousand    British    sol-      Indian* 
diers  sent  against  New  Orleans,  expected  as  easy  a  victory  as  that  of  Gen- 


380         ANSWER  TO  BRITISH  CLAIM  Ob  THE  RIGHT  OF  SEARCH 

eral  Ross  at  Washington.  But  Jackson  had  summoned  to  his  aid  the 
stalwart  frontiersmen  of  Kentucky  and  Tennessee — men  used  from  boy- 
hood to  the  rifle,  and  who  made  up  what  was  in  effect  a  splendid  force  of 
sharp-shooters.  Both  armies  threw  up  rough  fortifications  ;  General  Jack- 
son made  great  use  for  that  purpose  of  cotton  bales,  Packenham  employing 
the  still  less  solid  material  of  sugar  barrels.  As  it  proved  neither  of  these 
were  suitable  for  the  purpose,  and  they  had  to  be  replaced  by  earthworks. 
Oddly  enough,  the  final  battle,  and  really  the  most  important  one  of  the 
war,  took  place  after  the  treaty  of  peace  between  the  two  countries  had 
been  signed.  The  British  were  repulsed  again  and  again  in  persistent  and 
gallant  attacks  on  our  fortifications.  General  Packenham 

Jackson  s  " 

Famous  Great  himself   was    killed,   together  with   many  of  his  officers  and 
Victory  at         seven  hundred  of  his  men.     One  British  officer  pushed  to  the 

top  of  our  earthworks  and  demanded  their  surrender,  where- 
upon he  was  smilingly  asked  to  look  behind  him,  and  turning  saw,  as  he  after- 
wards said,  that  the  men  he  supposed  to  be  supporting  him  "  had  vanished 
as  if  the  earth  had  swallowed  them  up."  Of  the  Americans  only  a  few  men 
were  killed. 

The  treaty  of  peace,  signed  at  Ghent,  December  24,  1814,  has  been 
ridiculed  because  it  contained  no  positive  agreement  as  to  many  of  the 
questions  in  dispute.  Not  a  word  did  it  say  about  the  impressment  of 
American  sailors  or  the  rights  of  neutral  ships.  Its  chief  stipulations  were 
the  mutual  restoration  of  territory  and  the  appointing  of  a  commission  to 
determine  our  northern  boundary  line.  The  truth  is  that  both  nations 
were  tired  of  the  war ;  the  circumstances  that  had  led  to  England's  aggres- 
sions no  longer  existed;  both  countries  were  suffering  enormous  commer- 
cial loss  to  no  avail;  and,  above  all,  the  United  States  had  emphatically 
justified  by  its  deeds  its  claim  to  an  equal  place  in  the  council  of  nations. 

Politically  and  materially,  further  warfare  was  illogical  If 
Tlof  tlfe  War  t^ie  two  nat^ons  na<^  understood  each  other  better  in  the  first 

place ;  if  Great  Britain  had  treated  our  demands  with  cour- 
tesy and  justice  instead  of  with  insolence  ;  if,  in  short,  international  comity 
had  taken  the  place  of  international  ill-temper,  the  war  might  have  been 
avoided  altogether.  Its  undoubted  benefits  to  us  were  incidental  rather 
than  direct.  But  though  not  formally  recognized  by  treaty,  the  rights  of 
American  seamen  and  of  American  ships  were  in  fact  no  longer  infringed 
upon  by  Great  Britain: 

One  political  outcome  of  the  war  must  not  be  overlooked.  The  New 
England  Federalists  had  opposed  it  from  the  beginning,  had  naturally 
fretted  at  their  loss  of  commerce,  and  had  bitterly  upbraided  the  Demo- 


ANSWER  TO  BRITISH  CLAIM  OF  THE  RIGHT  OF  SEARCH         381 

cratic  administration  for  currying  popularity  by  a  war  carried  on  mainly  at 
New  England's  expense.  When,  in  the  latter  days  of  the  war,  New 
England  ports  were  closed,  Stonington  was  bombarded,  Castine  in  Maine 
was  seized,  and  serious  depredations  were  threatened  everywhere  along 
the  northeastern  coast,  the  Federalists  complained  that  the  administration 
taxed  them  for  the  war  but  did  not  protect  them.  The  outcome  of  all  this 
discontent  was  the  Hartford  Convention.  In  point  of  fact  it  was  a  quite 
harmless  conference  which  proposed  some  constitutional 
amendments,  protested  against  too  great  centralization  of  TI 
dower,  and  urged  the  desirability  of  peace  with  honor.  But 
the  most  absurd  rumors  were  prevalent  about  its  intentions  ;  a  regiment  of 
troops  was  actually  sent  to  Hartford  to  anticipate  treasonable  outbreaks  ; 
and  for  many  years  good  Democrats  religiously  believed  that  there  had 
been  a  plot  to  set  up  a  monarchy  in  New  England  with  the  Duke  of  Kent 
as  king.  Harmless  as  it  was,  the  Hartford  Convention  caused  the  death  of 
the  Federalist  party.  Its  mild  debates  were  distorted  into  secret  conclaves 
plotting  treason,  and,  though  the  news  of  peace  followed  close  upon  it,  the 
Convention  was  long  an  object  of  opprobrium  and  a  political  bugbear. 


CHAPTER    XXVI. 

The  United  States  Sustains  Its  Dignity  Abroad. 

IF  the  reader  will  look  at  any  map  of  Africa  he  will  see   on   the   northern 
coast,  defining  the  southern  limits  of  the   Mediterranean,  four  States, 
Morocco,  Algeria,  Tunis,  and  Tripoli,  running  east  and  west  a  distance 
of   1800  miles.     These  powers  had  for  centuries  maintained  a  state  of  semi- 
independency  by  paying  tribute  to  Turkey.      But  this  did  not  suit  Algeria, 
the  strongest  and  most  warlike  of  the   North  African  States  ;  and   in  the 

<D 

year  1710  the  natives  overthrew  the  rule  of  the  Turkish  Pasha,  expelled  him 
from  the  country,  and  united  his  authority  to  that  of  the  Dey,  the  Algerian 
monarch.  The  Dey  subsequently  governed  the  country  by  means  of  a 
The  Piratical  Divan  or  Council  of  State  chosen  from  the  principal  civic 
states  of  functionaries.  The  Algerians,  with  the  other  "  Barbary 
North  Africa  states>»  as  the  piratical  States  were  called,  defied  the  powers 
of  Europe  ;  their  armed  vessels  sweeping  the  waters  of  the  Mediterranean, 
committing  a  thousand  ravages  upon  the  merchant  vessels  of  other  nations, 
and  almost  driving  commerce  from  its  waters.  France  alone  resisted  these 
depredations,  and  this  only  partially,  for  after  she  had  repeatedly  chastised 
the  Algerians,  the  strongest  of  the  piratical  States,  and  had  induced  the  Dey 
to  sign  a  treaty  of  peace,  the  Corsairs  would  await  their  opportunity  and 
after  a  time  resume  their  depredations.  Algiers  in  the  end  forced  the  United 
States  to  resort  to  arms  in  the  defence  of  its  commerce,  and  the  long  immu- 
nity of  the  pirates  did  not  cease  until  the  great  republic  of  the  West  took 
them  in  hand. 

The  truth  is,  this  conflict  was  no  less  irrepressible  than  that  greater 
conflict  which  a  century  later  deluged  the  land  in  blood.  Before  the  Con- 
stitution of  the  United  States  had  been  adopted,  two  American  vessels,  fly- 
ing the  flag  of  thirteen  stripes  and  thirteen  stars,  instead  of  the  forty-five 
stars  which  now  form  our  national  constellation,  while  sailing  the  Mediter- 
ranean had  fallen  a  prey  to  the  swift,  heavily-armed  Algerian  cruisers.  The 
vessels  were  confiscated,  and  their  crews,  to  the  number  of  twenty-one  persons, 
were  held  for  ransom,  for  which  an  enormous  sum  was  demanded. 

This  sum  our  Government  was  by  no  means  willing  to  pay,  as  to  do  so 
would  be  to  establish  a  precedent  not  only  with  Algeria,  but  also  with  Tunis. 
383 


THE  UNITED  STATES  SUSTAINS  ITS  DIGNITY  ABROAD  383 

Tripoli,  and  Morocco,  for  each  of  these  African  piratical  States  was  in  league 
with  the  others,  and  all  had  to  be  separately  conciliated. 

But,  after  all,  what  else  could  the  Government  do  ?     The  country  had 
no  navy.      It  could  not  undertake  in  improvised  ships  to  go   forth  and  fight 
the  powerful  cruisers  of  the  African  pirates — States  so  strong  that  the  com- 
mercial nations  of  Europe  were  glad  to  win  exemption  from  their  depreda- 
tions by  annual  payments.    Why  not,  then,  ransom  these  American  captives 
by  the  payment  of  money  and  construct  a  navy  sufficiently  strong  to   resist 
their  encroachments  in  the  future  ?     This  feeling  on   the   part  of  the  Gov- 
ernment was   shared   by  the  people  of  the  country,  and   as  a   The  War  with 
result  Congress  authorized  the  building  of  six  frigates,  and  by      the  Pirates 
another  act   empowered   President  Washington   to  borrow   a      of  Tr|PoIi 
million  of  dollars  for  purchasing  peace.     Eventually  the  ransom  money  was 
paid  to  the  piratical  powers,  and  it  was  hoped   all  difficulty  was  at  an  end. 
But,  as  a  necessary  provision   for   the  future,  the  work  of  constructing  the 
new  warships  was  pushed  with  expedition.      As  will  be  seen,  this   proved  to 
be  a  wise  and  timely  precaution. 

We  are  now  brought  to  the  year  1800.  Tripoli,  angry  at  not  receiving 
as  much  money  as  was  paid  to  Algiers,  declared  war  against  the  United 
States.  Circumstances,  however,  had  changed  for  the  better,  and  the  repub- 
lic was  prepared  to  deal  with  the  oppressors  of  its  seamen  in  a  more  digni- 
fied and  efficient  manner  than  that  of  paying  ransom.  For  our  new  navy,  a 
small  but  most  efficient  one,  had  been  completed,  and  a  squadron  consisting 
of  the  frigates  Essex,  Captain  Bainbridge,  the  Philadelphia^  the  President,  and 
the  schooner  Experiment,  was  in  Mediterranean  waters.  Two  Tripolitan 
cruisers  lying  at  Gibraltar  on  the  watch  for  American  vessels  were  blockaded 
by  the  Philadelphia,.  Cruising  off  Tripoli,  the  Experiment  fell  in  with 
a  Tripolitan  cruiser  of  fourteen  guns,  and  after  three  hours'  hard  fighting 
captured  her,  the  Tripolitans  losing  twenty  killed  and  thirty  wounded.  This 
brilliant  result  had  a  marked  effect  in  quieting  the  turbulent  pirates,  who  for 
the  first  time  began  to  respect  the  United  States.  A  treaty  was  signed  in 
1805,  i°  which  Tripoli  agreed  no  longer  to  molest  American  ships  and 
sailors. 

This  war  was   marked   by  a  striking  evidence  of  American   pluck  and 

readiness   in   an  emergency.      During   the  contest  the  trio-ate   „ 

&       '  .  •    -r     .  •  The  Fam<>us 

Philadelphia,  while  chasing  certain  piratical  craft  into  the  har-      incident  of 

bor  of    Tripoli,    ran    aground    in    a    most    perilous    situation.       the  "pj»la- 
Escape  was  impossible,  she  was  under  the  guns  of  the  shore 
batteries  and  of  .the  Tripolitan  navy,  and   after  a  vain   effort  to  sink  her, 
all  on  board  were  forced  to  surrender  as  prisoners  of  war.     Subsequently 


384  THE  UNITED  STATES  SUSTAINS  ITS  DIGNITY  ABROAD 

the  Tripolitans  suceeded  in  floating  the  frigate,  brought  her  into  port 
in  triumph,  and  began  to  refit  her  as  a  welcome  addition  to  their  navy. 
This  state  of  affairs  was  galling  to  American  pride,  and,  as  the  vessel  could 
not  be  rescued,  it  was  determined  to  make  an  effort  to  destroy  her.  One 
night  a  Moorish  merchantman  (captured  and  fitted  for  the  purpose)  entered 
the  harbor  and  made  her  way  close  up  to  the  side  of  the  Philadelphia.  Only 
a  few  men,  dressed  in  Moorish  garb,  were  visible,  and  no  suspicion  of  their 
purpose  was  entertained.  As  these  men  claimed  to  have  lost  their  anchor, 
a  rope  was  thrown  them  from  the  vessel,  and  they  made  fast.  In  a  minute 
more  a  startling  change  took  place.  A  multitude  of  concealed  Americans 
suddenly  sprang  into  sight,  clambered  to  the  deck  of  the  Philadelphia,  and 
drove  the  surprised  Moors  over  her  sides.  The  frigate  was  fairly  recaptured. 
But  she  could  not  be  taken  out,  so  the  tars  set  her  on  fire,  and  made  their 
escape  by  the  light  of  her  blazing  spars  and  under  the  guns  of  the  Tripoli- 
tan  batteries,  not  a  ball  from  which  reached  them.  It  was  a  gallant  achieve- 
ment, and  gave  fame  to  Decatur,  its  leader. 

But  peace  was  not  yet  assured.  In  1815,  when  this  country  had  just  ended 
its  war  with  Great  Britain,  the  Dey  of  Algiers  unceremoniously  dismissed 
the  American  Consul  and  declared  war  against  the  United  States,  on  the  plea 
that  he  had  not  received  certain  articles  demanded  under  the  tribute  treaty. 
This  time  the  government  was  well  prepared  for  the  issue.  The 
population  of  the  country  had  increased  to  over  eight  millions. 
The  military  spirit  of  the  nation  had  been  aroused  by  the  war 
with  Great  Britain,  ending  in  the  splendid  victory  at  New  Orleans  under 
General  Jackson.  Besides  this,  the  navy  had  been  increased  and  made  far 
more  effective.  The  administration,  with  Madison  at  its  head,  decided  to 
submit  to  no  further  extortions  from  the  Mediterranean  pirates,  and  the 
President  sent  in  a  forcible  message  to  Congress  on  the  subject,  taking  high 
American  ground.  The  result  was  a  prompt  acceptance  of  the  Algerian 
declaration  of  war.  Events  succeeded  each  other  in  rapid  succession. 
Ships  new  and  old  were  at  once  fitted  out.  On  May  15,  1815,  Decatur 
sailed  from  New  York  to  the  Mediterranean.  His  squadron  comprised  the 
frigates  Guerriere,  Macedonian  and  Constellation,  the  new  sloop  of  war 
Ontario,  and  four  brigs  and  two  schooners  in  addition. 

On  June  i;th,  the  second  day  after  entering  the  Mediter- 
ranean»  Decatur  captured  the  largest  frigate  in  the  Algerian 
navy,  having  forty-four  guns.  The  next  day  an  Algerian  brig 
was  taken,  and  in  less  than  two  weeks  after  his  first  capture  Decatur,  with 
his  entire  squadron,  appeared  off  Algiers.  The  end  had  come.  The  Dey's 
courage,  like  that  of  Bob  Acres,  oozed  out  at  his  fingers'  ends.  The 


THE  UNITED  STATES  SUSTAINS  ITS  DIGNITY  ABROAD          385 

terrified  Dey  sued  for  peace,  which  Decatur  compelled  him  to  sign  on  the 
quarter-deck  of  the  Guerriere.  In  this  treaty  it  was  agreed  by  the  Dey  to  sur- 
render all  prisoners,  pay  a  heavy  indemnity,  and  renounce  all  tribute  from 
America  in  the  future.  Decatur  also  secured  indemnity  from  Tunis  and 
Tripoli  for  American  vessels  captured  under  the  guns  of  their  forts  by 
British  cruisers  during  the  late  war. 

This  ended  at  once  and  forever  the  payment  of  tribute  to  the  piratical 
States  of  North  Africa.  All  Europe,  as  well  as  our  own  country,  rang  with 
the  splendid  achievements  of  our  navy  ;  and  surely  the  stars  and  stripes 
had  never  before  floated  more  proudly  from  the  masthead  of  an  American 
vessel — and  they  are  flying  as  proudly  to-day. 

One  further  example  of  the  readiness  of  this  country  to  defend  itself 
upon  the  seas  in  its  weak,  early  period  may  be  related,  though  it  slightly 
antedated  the  beginning  of  the  century.  This  was  a  result  of  American 
indignation  at  the  ravages  upon  its  commerce  by  the  warring 
nations  of  Europe.  About  1798  the  depredations  of  France  A 
upon  our  merchantmen  became  so  aggravating  that,  without 
the  formality  of  a  declaration,  a  naval  war  began.  The  vessels  of  our  new 
navy  were  sent  out,  "  letters  of  marque  and  reprisal "  were  granted  to 
privateers,  and  their  work  soon  began  to  tell.  Captain  Truxton  of  the  Con- 
stellation captured  the  French  frigate  U Insurgente,  the  privateers  brought 
more  than  fifty  armed  vessels  of  the  French  into  port  and  France  quickly  de- 
cided that  she  wanted  peace.  This  sort  of  argument  was  not  quite  to  her  taste. 

Seventeen  years  after  the  close  of  the  trouble  with  Algiers,  in  1832, 
one  of  the  most  interesting  cases  of  difficulty  with  a  foreign  power  arose. 
As  with  Algeria  and  Tripoli,  so  now  our  navy  was  resorted  to  for  the  pur- 
pose of  exacting  reparation.  This  time  the  trouble  was  with  the  kingdom  of 
Naples,  in  Italy,  which  had  been  wrested  from  Spain  by  Napoleon,  who 
placed  successively  his  brother  Joseph  and  his  brother-in-law  Murat  on  the 
throne  of  Naples  and  the  two  Sicilies.  During  the  years  1809-12  the  Nea- 
politan government,  under  Joseph  and  Murat  successively,  had  confiscated 
numerous  American  ships  with  their  cargoes.  The  total  amount  of  the 
American  claims  against  Naples,  as  filed  in  the  State  department  when 
Jackson's  administration  assumed  control,  was  $1,734,994.  They  were  held 
by  various  insurance  companies  and  by  citizens,  principally  of  Baltimore. 
Demands  for  the  payment  of  these  claims  had  from  time  to  time  been  made 
by  our  government,  but  Naples  had  always  refused  to  settle  them. 

Jackson  and  his  cabinet  took  a  decided  stand,  and  determined  that  the 
Neapolitan  government,  then  in  the  hands  of  Ferdinand  II. — subsequently 
r:cknamed  Bomba  because  of  his  cruelties — should  make  due  reparation  for 


386  THE  UNITED  STATES  SUSTAINS  ITS  DIGNITY  ABROAD 

the  losses   sustained    by   American    citizens.      The    Hon.    John   Nelson,    01 

Frederick,  Maryland,  was  appointed   Minister  to   Naples,   and  required  to 

insist    upon    a  settlement.      Commodore    Daniel   Patterson,  who  had  aided 

The  Claim  m  t^e  defense  of  New  Orleans  in  1815,  was  put  in  command 

Against  of  the  Mediterranean  squadron  and  ordered  toco-operate  with 

Minister    Nelson    in    enforcing    his    demands.       But    Naples 

persisted  in  her  refusal  to  render  satisfaction,  and  a  warlike  demonstration 

was  decided  upon,  the  whole  matter  being  placed,  under  instructions,  in  the 

hands  of  Commodore  Patterson. 

The    entire    force    under    his    command    consisted    of    three    fiftv-ffjn 

'     «* 

frigates  and  three  twenty-gun  corvettes.  In  order  not  to  precipitate 
matters  too  hastily,  the  plan  adopted  was  that  these  vessels  should  appear 
in  the  Neapolitan  waters  one  at  a  time,  and  instructions  were  given  to  that 
effect.  The  Brandywine,  with  Minister  Nelson  on  board,  went  first.  Mr. 
Nelson  made  his  demand  for  a  settlement  and  was  refused.  There  was 
nothing  in  the  appearance  of  a  Yankee  envoy  and  a  single  ship  to  trouble 
King  Bomba  and  his  little  kingdom.  The  Brandywine  cast  anchor  in  the 
harbor  and  the  humbled  envoy  waited  patiently  for  a  few  days.  Then 
H  another  American  flag  appeared  on  the  horizon,  and  the 

Bomba  was  frigate  United  States  floated  into  the  harbor  and  came  to 
Brought  tp  anchor.  Mr.  Nelson  repeated  his  demands,  and  they  were 
again  refused.  Four  days  slipped  away,  and  the  stars  and 
stripes  once  more  appeared  off  the  harbor.  King  Bomba,  looking  out  from 
his  palace  windows,  saw  the  fifty-gun  frigate  Concord  sail  into  the  harbor 
and  drop  her  anchor.  Then  unmistakable  signs  of  uneasiness  began  to 
show  themselves.  Forts  were  repaired,  troops  drilled,  and  more  cannon 
mounted  on  the  coast.  The  demands  were  reiterated,  but  the  Neapolitan 
government  still  declined  to  consider  them.  Two  days  later  another  war- 
ship made  her  way  into  the  harbor.  It  was  the  John  Adams.  When  the, 
fifth  ship  sailed  gallantly  in,  Nelson  sent  word  home  that  he  was  still 
unable  to  collect  the  bill.  The  end  was  not  yet.  Three  days  later,  and  the 
sixth  American  sail  showed  itself  on  the  blue  waters  of  the  peerless  bay.  It 
was  the  handwriting  on  the  wall  for  King  Bomba,  and  his  government 
announced  that  they  would  accede  to  the  American  demands.  The  nego- 
tiations were  promptly  resumed  and  speedily  closed,  the  payment  of  the 
principal  in  installments  with  interest  being  guaranteed.  Pending  nego- 
tiations, from  August  28th  to  September  I5th  the  entire  squadron  remained 
in  the  Bay  of  Naples,  and  then  the  ships  sailed  away  and  separated.  So, 
happily  and  bloodlessly,  ended  a  difficulty  which  at  one  time  threatened 
most  serious  results. 


THE  UNITED  STATES  SUSTAINS  ITS  DIGNITY  ABROAD         387 

Another  demonstration,  less  imposing  in  numbers  but  quite  as  spirited, 
and,  indeed,  more   intensely  dramatic,  occurred  at  Smyrna  in 
1853,  when    Captain    Duncan    N.    Ingraham,    with    a   single      graham  and 
sloop-of-war,    trained   his   broadsides   on    a   fleet   of  Austrian       the  Koszta 
warships   in    the   harbor.      The   episode  was  a  most   thrilling 
one,  and  our  record   would  be   incomplete  were  so  dramatic  an  affair  left 
unrecorded  on  its  pages.      This  is  the  story  : 

When  the  revolution  of  Hungary  against  Austria  was  put  down,  Kos- 
suth>  Koszta,  and  other  leading  revolutionists  fled  to  Smyrna,  and  the 
Turkish  government,  after  long  negotiations,  refused  to  give  them  up. 
Koszta  soon  after  came  to  the  United  States,  and  in  July,  1852,  declared 
under  oath  his  intention  of  becoming  an  American  citizen.  He  resided  in 
New  York  city  a  year  and  eleven  months. 

A  year  after  he  had  declared  his  intention  to  assume  American  citizen- 
ship, Koszta  went  to  Smyrna  oh  business,  where  he  remained  for  a  time 
undisturbed.  He  had  so  inflamed  the  Austrian  government  against  him, 
however,  that  a  plot  was  formed  to  capture  him.  On  June  21,  1853,  while 
he  was  seated  on  the  Marina,  a  public  resort  in  Smyrna,  a  band  of  Greek 
mercenaries,  hired  by  the  Austrian  Consul,  seized  him  and  carried  him  off 
to  an  Austrian  ship-of-war,  the  Huzzar,  then  lying  in  the  harbor.  Arch- 
duke John,  brother  of  the  emperor,  is  said  to  have  been  in  command  of  this 
vessel.  Koszta  was  put  in  irons  and  treated  as  a  criminal.  The  next  day 
an  American  sloop-of-war,  the  St.  Louis,  commanded  by  Captain  Duncan  N. 
Ingraham,  sailed  into  the  harbor.  Learning  what  had  happened,  Captain 
Ingraham  immediately  sent  on  board  the  Huzzar  and  courteously  asked 
permission  to  see  Koszta.  His  request  was  granted,  and  the  captain 
assured  himself  that  Koszta  was  entitled  to  the  protection  of  the  American 
flag.  He  demanded  his  release  from  the  Austrian  commander.  When  it 
was  refused,  he  communicated  with  the  nearest  United  States  official,  Con- 
sul Brown,  at  Constantinople.  While  he  was  waiting  for  an  answer  six 
Austrian  warships  sailed  into  the  harbor  and  came  to  anchor  in  positions 
near  the  Huzzar.  On  June  29th,  before  Captain  Ingraham  The  "St. 
had  received  any  answer  from  the  American  Consul,  he  Louis  "and 
noticed  unusual  signs  of  activity  on  board  the  Huzzar,  and  the  "Huzzar" 
before  long  she  began  to  get  under  way.  The  American  captain  made  up 
his  mind  immediately.  He  put  the  St.  Louis  straight  in  the  Huzzar  s 
course  and  cleared  his  guns  for  action.  The  Huzzar  hove  to,  and  Captain 
Ingraham  went  on  board  and  demanded  the  meaning  of  her  action. 

"  We  propose,  to  sail  for  home,"  replied  the  Austrian.  "The  consul 
has  ordered  us  to  take  our  prisonej;  to  Austria." 


388  THE  UNITED  STATES  SUSTAINS  ITS  DIGNITY  ABROAD 

"You  will  pardon  me,"  said  Captain  Ingraham,  "but  if  you  attempt  to 
leave  this  port  with  that  American  on  board  I  shall  be  compelled. to  resort 
to  extreme  measures." 

The  Austrian  glanced  around  at  the  fleet  of  Austrian  war-ships  and  the 
single  American  sloop-of-war.  Then  he  smiled  pleasantly,  and  intimated  that 
the  Hi(",zar  would  do  as  she  pleased. 

Captain  Ingraham  bowed  and  returned  to  the  St.  Louis.  He  had  no 
soone-  reached  her  deck  than  he  called  out  :  "  Clear  the  guns  for  action  !" 

The  Archduke  of  Austria  saw  the  batteries  of  the  St.  Louis  turned 
upon  him,  and  suddenly  realized  that  he  was  in  the  wrong.  The  Huzzar 
was  put  about  and  sailed  back  to  her  old  anchorage.  Word  was  sent  to 
Captain  Ingraham  that  the  Austrian  would  await  the  arrival  of  the  note 
from  Mr.  Brown. 

The  consul's  note,  which  came  on  July  ist,  commended  Captain  Ingra- 
ham's  course  and  advised  him  to  take  whatever  action  he  thought  the  situa- 
tion demanded.  At  eight  o'clock  on  the  morning  of  July  2d,  Captain  In- 
graham sent  a  note  to  the  commander  of  the  Huzzar,  formally  demanding 
the  release  of  Mr.  Koszta.  Unless  the  prisoner  was  delivered  on  board  the 
St.  Louis  before  four  o'clock  the  next  afternoon,  Captain  Ingraham  would 
take  him  from  the  Austrians  by  force.  The  Archduke  sent  back  a  formal 
refusal.  At  eight  o'clock  the  next  morning  Captain  Ingraham  once  more 
Koszta  is  Given  ordered  the  decks  cleared  for  action  and  trained  his  batteries 
Up  to  Ingra-  on  the  Huzzar.  The  seven  Austrian  war  vessels  cleared  their 
decks  and  put  their  men  at  the  guns. 

At  ten  o'clock  an  Austrian  officer  came  to  Captain  Ingraham  and  began 
to  temporize.  Captain  Ingraham  refused  to  listen  to  him. 

"  To  avoid  the  worst,"  he  said,  "  I  will  agree  to  let  the  man  be  delivered 
to  the  French  Consul  at  Smyrna  until  you  have  opportunity  to  communicate 
with  your  government.  Rut  he  must  be  delivered  there,  or  I  will  take  him. 
I  have  stated  the  time." 

At  twelve  o'clock  a  boat  left  the  Huzzar  with  Koszta  in  it,  and  an  hour 
later  the  French  Consul  sent  word  that  Koszta  was  in  his  keeping.  Then 
several  of  the  Austrian  war-wessels  sailed  out  of  the  harbor.  Long  negotia- 
tions between  the  two  governments  followed,  and  in  the  end  Austria  ad- 
mitted that  the  United  States  was  in  the  right,  and  apologized. 

Scarcely  had  the  plaudits  which  greeted  Captain  Ingraham's  intrepid 
course  died  away,  when,  the  next  year,  another  occasion  arose  where  our 
government  was  obliged  to  resort  to  the  show  of  force.  This  time  Nica- 
ragua was  the  country  involved.  Various  outrages,  as  was  contended,  had 
been  committed  on  the  persons  and  property  of  American  citizens  dwelling 


THE  UNITED  STATES  SUSTAINS  ITS  DIGNITY  ABROAD          389 

in    that    country.     The   repeated   demands  for  redress  were   not  complied 
with.      Peaceful    negotiations    having    failed,    in    June,    1854,    The  Trouble 
Commander     Hollins,    with     the    sloop    of    war    Cyane,    was       with  Nicara- 
ordered  to  proceed  to  the  town  of  San  Juan,  or  Greytown,      gua 
which  lies  on  the   Mosquito  coast  of  Nicaragua,  and  to  insist  on  favorable 
action  from  the  Nicaraguan  government. 

Captain  Hollins  came  to  anchor  off  the  coast  and  placed  his  demands 
before  the  authorities.  He  waited  patiently  for  a  response,  but  no  satisfac- 
tory one  was  offered  him.  After  a  number  of  days  he  made  a  final  appeal 
and  then  proceeded  to  carry  out  his  instructions.  On  the  morning  of  July 
1 3th  he  directed  his  batteries  on  the  town  of  San  Juan  and  opened  fire. 
Until  four  o'clock  in  the  afternoon  the  ship  poured  out  broadsides  as 
fast  as  its  guns  could  be  loaded.  By  that  time  the  greater  part  of  the 
town  was  destroyed.  Then  a  party  of  marines  was  put  on  shore,  and 
completed  the  destruction  of  the  place  by  burning  the  houses. 

A  lieutenant  of  the  British  navy  commanding  a  small  vessel  of  war  was 
in  the  harbor  at  the  time.  England  claimed  a  species  of  protectorate  over 
the  settlement,  and  the  British  officer  raised  violent  protest  against  the 
action  taken  by  America's  representative.  Captain  Hollins,  however,  paid 
no  attention  to  the  interference  and  carried  out  his  instructions.  The 
United  States  government  later  sustained  Captain  Hollins  in  everything 
he  had  done,  and  England  thereupon  thought  best  to  let  the  matter  drop. 
In  this  that  country  was  unquestionably  wise. 

At  this  time  the  United  States  seems  to  have  entered  upon  a  period  of 
international  conflict ;  for  no  sooner  had  the  difficulties  with  Austria  and 
Nicaragua  been  adjusted  than  another  war-cloud  appeared  on  the  horizon. 
Here  again  only  a  year  from  the  last  conflict  had  elapsed,  for  in  1855  an 
offense  was  committed  against  the  United  States  by  Paraguay. 
To  explain  what  it  was  we  shall  have  to  go  back  three  years, 
In  1852  Captain  Thomas  J.  Page,  commanding  a  small  light- 
draught  steamer,  the  Water  Witch,  by  direction  of  his  government  started 
for  South  America  to  explore  the  River  La  Plata  and  its  large  tributaries, 
with  a  view  to  opening  up  commercial  intercourse  between  the  United 
States  and  the  interior  States  of  South  America.  We  have  said  that  the 
expedition  was  ordered  by  our  government ;  it  also  remains  to  be  noted 
that  it  was  undertaken  with  the  full  consent  and  approbation  of  the 
countries  having  jurisdiction  over  those  waters.  Slowly,  but  surely,  the 
little  steamer  pushed  her  way  up  the  river,  making  soundings  and  charting 
the  river  as  she  proceeded.  All  went  well  until  February  i,  1855,  when  the 
first  sign  of  trouble  appeared. 


3Q3  THE  UNITED  STATES  SUSTAINS  ITS  DIGNITY  ABROAD 

It  was  a  lovely  day  in  early  summer — the  summer  begins  in  February 
in  that  latitude — and  nothing  appeared  to  indicate  the  slightest  disturbance 
The  little  Water  Witch  was  quietly  steaming  up  the  River  Parana,  which 
forms  the  northern  boundary  of  the  State  of  Corrientes,  separating  it  from 
Paraguay,  when  suddenly,  without  a  moment's  warning,  a  battery  from  Fort 
Itaparu,  on  the  Paraguayan  shore,  opened  fire  upon  her,  immediately  killing 
The  Assault  on  one  °f  ^er  crew>  wno  at  that  time  was  at  the  wheel.  The 
the  "Water  Water  Witch  was  not  fitted  for  hostilities;  least  of  all  could 
she  assume  the  risk  of  attempting  to  run  the  batteries  of  the 
fort.  Accordingly,  Captain  Page  put  the  steamer  about,  and  was  soon  out 
of  range.  It  should  here  be  explained  that  at  that  time  President  Carlos 
A.  Lopez  was  the  autocratic  ruler  of  Paraguay,  and  that  he  had  previously 
received  Captain  Page  with  every  assurance  of  friendship.  A  few  months 
previous,  however,  Lopez  had  been  antagonized  by  the  United  States  con- 
sul at  Ascen'cion.  This  gentleman,  in  addition  to  his  official  position,  acted 
as  agent  for  an  American  mercantile  company  of  which  Lopez  disapproved 
and  whose  business  he  had  broken  up.  He  had  also  issued  a  decree 
forbidding  foreign  vessels  of  war  to  navigate  the  Parana  or  any  of  the 
waters  bounding  Paraguay,  which  he  clearly  had  no  right  to  do,  as  half  the 
stream  belonged  to  the  country  bordering  on  the  other  side. 

Captain  Page,  finding  it  impracticable  to  prosecute  his  exploration  any 
further,  at  once  returned  to  the  United  States,  where  he  gave  the  Washington 
authorities  a  detailed  account  of  the  occurrence.  It  was  claimed  by  our 
government  that  the  Water  Witch  was  not  subject  to  the  jurisdiction  of 
Paraguay,  as  the  channel  was  the  equal  property  of  the  Argentine  Republic. 
It  was  further  claimed  that,  even  if  she  had  been  within  the  jurisdiction  of  Para- 
guay, she  was  not  properly  a  vessel  of  war,  but  a  government  boat  employed 
for  scientific  purposes.  And  even  were  the  vessel  supposed  to  be  a  war 
vessel,  it  was  contended  that  it  was  a  gross  violation  of  international  right 
and  courtesy  to  fire  shot  at  the  vessel  of  a  friendly  power  without  first 
resorting  to  more  peaceful  means.  At  that  time  William  L.  Marcy,  one  of  the 
foremost  statesmen  of  his  day,  was  Secretary  of  State.  Mr.  Marcy  at  once 

wrote  a  strong  letter  to  the  Paraguayan  government,  stating 
Marcy  Demands  ,  ,  ,  ,  .  .  .  ,  ,  .  f  ^  • 

Reparation        t"e  facts  PI  the  case,  declaring  that  the  action  ot  Paraguay  in 

firing  upon  the  Water  Witch  would  not  be  submitted  to,  and 
demanding  ample  apology  and  compensation.  All  efforts  in  this  direction, 
however,  proved  fruitless.  Lopez  refused  to  give  any  reparation  ;  and  not 
only  so,  but  declared  that  no  American  vessel  would  be  allowed  to  ascend 
the  Parana  for  the  purpose  indicated. 


THE  UNITED  STATES  SUSTAINS  ITS  DIGNITY  ABROAD          391 

The  event,  as  it  became  known,  aroused  not  a  little  excitement ;  and 
while  there  were  .some  who  deprecated  a  resort  to  extreme  measures,  the 
general  sentiment  of  the  country  was  decidedly  manifested  in  favor  of  an 
assertion  of  our  rights  in  the  premises.  Accordingly,  President  Pierce  sent 
a  message  to  Congress,  stating  that  a  peaceful  adjustment  of  the  difficulty  was 
impossible,  and  asking  for  authority  to  send  such  a  naval  force  to  Paraguay 
as  would  compel  her  arbitrary  ruler  to  give  the  full  satisfaction  demanded. 

To  this  request  Congress  promptly  and  almost  unanimously  gave 
assent,  and  one  of  the  strongest  naval  expeditions  ever  fitted  out  by  the 
United  States  up  to  that  time  was  ordered  to  assemble  at  the  mouth  of  La 
Plata  River.  The  fleet  was  an  imposing  one  for  the  purpose,  and  com- 
prised nineteen  vessels,  seven  of  which  were  steamers  specially  A  powerfui 
chartered  for  the  purpose,  as  our  largest  war  vessels  were  of  Fleet  Sent  to 
too  deep  draught  to  ascend  the  La  Plata  and  Parana.  The  Paras"ay 
entire  squadron  carried  200  guns  and  2,500  men,  and  was  commanded  by 
flag  officer,  afterward  rear-admiral,  Shubrick,  one  of  the  oldest  officers  of 
our  navy,  and  one  of  the  most  gallant  men  that  ever  trod  a  quarter-deck. 
Flag  Officer  Shubrick  was  accompanied  by  United  States  Commissioner 
Bowlin,  to  whom  was  intrusted  negotiations  for  the  settlement  of  the 
difficulty. 

Three  years  and  eleven  months  had  now  passed  since  the  Water  Witch 
was  fired  upon,  and  President  Buchanan  had  succeeded  Franklin  Pierce. 
The  winter  of  1859  was  just  closing  in  at  the  north  ;  the  streams  were  closed 
by  ice,  and  the  lakes  were  ice-bound,  but  the  palm  trees  of  the  south  were 
displaying  their  fresh  green  leaves,  like  so  many  fringed  banners,  in  the 
warm  tropical  air  when  the  United  States  squadron  assembled  at  Monte- 
video. The  fleet  included  two  United  States  frigates,  the  Sabine  and  the 
St.  Lawrence ;  two  sloops-of-war,  the  Falmouth  and  the  Preble ;  three  brigs, 
the  Bainbridge,  the  Dolphin  and  the  Perry  ;  seven  steamers  especially  armed 
for  the  occasion,  the  Memphis,  the  Caledonia,  the  Atlanta,  the  Southern  Star, 
the  Westernport,  the  M.  W.  Chapin,  and  the  Metacomet ;  two  armed  store- 
ships,  the  Supply  and  the  Release ;  the  revenue  steamer,  Harriet  Lane;  and, 
lastly,  the  little  Water  Witch  herself,  no  longer  defenceless,  but  in  fighting 
trim  for  hostilities. 

On  the  25th  of  January,  1859,  within  just  one  week  of  four  years  from 
the  firing  upr  ^  the  Water  Witch,  the  squadron  got  under  way  and  came  to 
anchor   off  Ascencion,    the  capital  of   Paraguay.      Meanwhile    The  Snips 
President    Urquiza,     of    the     Argentine    Republic,    who    had       Anchor  off 
offered  his  services  to  mediate  the  difficulty,  had  arrived  at       Ascencion 
Ascencion  in  advance  of  the  squadron.     The  negotiations  were  reopened,  anu 


392  THE  UNITED  STATES  SUSTAINS  ITS  DIGNITY  ABROAD 

Commissioner  Bowlin  made  his  demand  for  instant  reparation.  All  this 
time  Flag  Officer  Shubrick  was  not  idle.  With  such  of  our  vessels  as  were 
of  suitable  size  he  ascended  the  river,  taking  them  through  the  difficulties 
created  by  its  currents,  shoals  and  sand  bars,  and  brought  them  to  a  position 
above  the  town,  where  they  were  made  ready  for  action  in  case  of  necessity 
to  open  fire.  The  force  within  striking  distance  of  Paraguay  consisted  of 
1,740  men,  besides  the  officers,  and  78  guns,  including  23  nine-inch  shell 
guns  and  one  shell  gun  of  eleven  inches. 

Ships  and  guns  proved  to  be  very  strong  arguments  with  Lopez.    It  did 
not  take  the  Dictator-President  long  to  see  that  the  United   States  meant 
business,  and  that  the  time  for  trifling  had  passed  and  the  time  for  serious 
work    had    come.      President   Lopez's  cerebral  processes    worked    with    re- 
markable and  encouraging  celerity.      .By   February    5th,    within   less   than 
two  weeks  of  the  starting  of  the  squadron  from  Montevideo,  Commissioner 
Bowlin's  demands  were  all  acceded  to.      Ample   apologies  were  made  for 
President  Lo  e    ^r'mS  on  tne  Water  Witch,  aud  pecuniary  compensation  was 
Brought  to        given   to  the  family  of   the   sailor  who  had  been   killed.      In 
Terms  addition  to   this,    a    new   commercial    treaty   was   made,    and 

cordial  relations  were  fully  restored  between  the  two  governments. 

A  period  of  more  than  thirty  years  now  elapsed  before  any  serious  di{- 
ficulty  occurred  with  a  foreign  power.  In  1891  an  event  took  place  that 
threatened  to  disturb  our  relations  with  Chili  and  possibly  involve  the 
United  States  in  war  with  that  power.  Happily  the  matter  reached  a  peace- 
ful settlement.  In  January,  of  that  year,  civil  war  had  broken  out  in  Chili,  the 
cause  of  which  was  a  contest  between  the  legislative  branch  of  the  government 
The  Civil  War  and  the  executive,  for  the  control  of  affairs.  The  President  of 
in  Chili  Chili,  General  Balmaceda,  began  to  assert  authority  which  the 

legislature,  or  "  the  Congressionalists,"  as  the  opposing  party  was  called, 
resisted  as  unconstitutional  and  oppressive,  and  they  accordingly  proceeded 
to  interfere  with  Balmaceda's  Cabinet  in  its  efforts  to  carry  out  the  presi- 
dent's despotic  will. 

Finally  matters  came  to  a  point  where  appeal  to  arms  was  necessary. 
On  the  gth  of  January  the  Congressional  party  took  possession  of  the 
greater  part  of  the  Chilian  fleet,  the  navy  being  in  hearty  sympathy  with 
them,  and  the  guns  of  the  warships  were  turned  against  Balmaceda, — 
Valparaiso,  the  capital,  and  other  ports  being  blockaded  hy  the  ships. 
For  a  time  Balmaceda  maintained  control  of  the  capital  and  the  southern 
part  of  the  country.  The  key  to  the  position  was  Valparaiso,  which  was 
strongly  fortified,  Balmaceda's  army  being  massed  there  and  placed  at 
available  points. 


THE  UNITED  STATES  SUSTAINS  ITS  DIGNITY  ABROAD  393 

At  last  the  Congressionalists  determined  to  attack  Balmaceda  at  his 
capital,  and  on  August  2ist  landed  every  available  fighting  man  at  their 
disposal  at  Concon,  about  ten  miles  north  of  Valparaiso.  They  were 
attacked  by  the  Dictator  on  the  22d,  there  being  twenty  thousand  men  on 
each  side.  The  Dictator  had  the  worst  of  it.  Then  he  rallied  his  shattered 
forces,  and  made  his  last  stand  at  Placillo,  close  to  Valparaiso,  on  the  28th. 
The  battle  was  hot,  the  carnage  fearful ;  neither  side  asked  for  or  received 
quarter.  The  magazine  rifles,  with  which  the  revolutionists  were  armed, 
did  wonders.  The  odds  were  against  Balmaceda  ;  both  his  generals  quar- 
reled in  face  of  the  enemy  ;  his  army  became  divided  and  de- 
moralized. In  a  later  battle  both  of  his  generals  were  killed. 
The  valor  and  the  superior  tactics  of  General  Canto,  leader  of 
the  Congressional  army,  won  the  day.  Balmaceda  fled  and  eventually 
committed  suicide,  and  the  Congressionalists  entered  the  capital  in 
triumph. 

Several  incidents  meantime  had  conspired,  during  the  progress  of  this 
war,  to  rouse  the  animosity  of  the  stronger  party  in  Chili  against  the  United 
States.  Before  the  Congressionalists'  triumph  the  steamship  Itata,  loaded 
with  American  arms  and  ammunition  for  Chili,  sailed  from  San  Francisco, 
and  as  this  was  a  violation  of  the  neutrality  laws,  a  United  States  war  vessel 
pursued  her  to  the  harbor  of  Iquique,  where  she  surrendered.  Then  other 
troubles  arose.  Our  minister  at  Valparaiso,  Mr.  Egan,  was  charged  by  the 
Congressionalists,  then  in  power,  with  disregarding  international  law  in 
allowing  the  American  Legation  to  be  made  an  asylum  for  the  adherents  of 
Balmaceda.  Subsequently  these  refugees  were  permitted  to  go  aboard 
American  vessels  and  sail  away.  Then  Admiral  Brown,  of  the  United 
States  squadron,  was,  in  Chili's  opinion,  guilty  of  having  acted  as  a  spy 
upon  the  movements  of  the  Congressionalists'  fleet  at  Quinteros,  and  of 
bringing  intelligence  of  its  movements  to  Balmaceda  at  Valparaiso.  This, 
however,  the  Admiral  stoutly  denied. 

The  strong  popular  feeling  of  dislike  which  was  engendered  by  these 
charges  culminated  on  tne  i6th  of  October,  in  an  attack  upon  American  sea- 
men by  a  mob  in  the  streets  of  the  Chilian  capital.  Captain  Schley,  com- 
mander of  the  United  States  cruiser  Baltimore,  had  given  shore-leave  to  a 
hundred  "and  seventeen  petty  officers  and  seamen,  some  of  An  Attack  on 
whom,  when  they  had  been  on  shore  for  several  hours,  were  the  Men  of 

set  upon  by  Chilians.      They  took  refuse  in  a  street  car,  from       the  "  ^altl" 
1  J  J  '  >  more 

which,  however,  they  were  soon  driven  and  mercilessly  beaten, 
and  a  subordinate  officer  named  Riggen  fell,  apparently  lifeless.    The  Ameri- 
can   sailors,    according    to  Captain    Schley 's    testimony,   were    sober    and 


394  THE  UNITED  STATES  SUSTAINS  ITS  DIGNITY  ABROAD 

conducting  themselves  with  propriety  when  the  attack  was  made.  They 
were  not  armed,  even  their  knives  having  been  taken  from  them  before  they 
left  the  vessel. 

The  assault  upon  those  in  the  street  car  seemed  to  be  only  a  signal  for 
a  general  uprising  ;  and  a  mob  which  is  variously  estimated  at  from  one 
thousand  to  two  thousand  people  attacked  our  sailors  with  such  fury  that  in 
a  little  while  these  men,  whom  no  investigation  could  find  guilty  of  any 
breach  of  the  peace,  were  fleeing  for  their  lives  before  an  overwhelming 
crowd,  among  which  were  a  number  of  the  police  of  Valparaiso.  In  this 
affray  eighteen  sailors  were  stabbed,  several  dying  from  their  wounds. 

Of  course  the  United  States  government  at  once  communicated  with 
the  Chilian  authorities  on  the  subject,  expressing  an  intention  to  investigate 
the  occurrence  fully.  The  first  reply  made  to  the  American  government  by 
Signor  Matta,  the  Chilian  minister  of  foreign  affairs,  was  to  the  effect  that 
Chili  would  not  allow  anything  to  interfere  with  her  own  official  investi- 
gation. 

An  examination  of  all  the  facts  was  made  on  our  part.      It  was  careful 

and  thorough,  and  showed  that  our  flag  had  been  insulted  in  the  persons  of 

American  seamen.      Yet,  while  the  Chilian  court  of  inquiry  could  present 

An  investiga-      no   extenuating  facts,   that   country   refused  at   first   to   offer 

tion  De-  apology  or  reparation  for  the  affront.      In  the  course  of  the 

correspondence   Minister  Matta  sent  a  note  of  instruction  to 

Mr.  Montt,  Chilian  representative  at  Washington,  in  which  he  used  the  most 

offensive  terms  in  relation  to  the  United  States,  and  directed  that  the  letter 

should  be  given  to  the  press  for  publication. 

After  waiting  for  a  long  time  for  the  result  of  the  investigation  at 
Valparaiso,  and  finding  that,  although  no  excuse  or  palliation  had  been  found 
for  the  outrage,  the  Chilian  authorities  seemed  reluctant  to  offer  apology, 
the  President  of  the  United  States,  in  a  message  to  Congress,  made  an  ex- 
tended statement  of  the  various  incidents  of  the  case  and  its  legal  aspect, 
and  stated  that  on  the  2ist  of  January  he  had  caused  a  peremptory  com- 
munication to  be  presented  to  the  Chilian  government  by  the  American 
minister  at  Santiago,  in  which  severance  of  diplomatic  relations  was 
threatened  if  our  demands  for  satisfaction,  which  included  the  withdrawal 
of  Mr.  Matta's  insulting  note,  were  not  complied  with.  At  the  time  that 
this  message  was  delivered  no  reply  had  been  sent  to  the  note. 

Mr.  Harrison's  statement  of  the  legal  aspect  of  the  case,  upon  which 
the  final  settlement  of  the  difficulty  was  based,  was  that  the  presence  of  a 
Warship  of  any  nation  in  a  port  belonging  to  a  friendly  power  is  by  virtue 
of  a  general  invitation  which  nations  are  held  to  extend  to  each  other  ;  that 


THE  UNITED  STATES  SUSTAINS  ITS  DIGNITY  ABROAD  395 

Commander  Schley  was  invited,   with  his  officers  and  crew,  to  enjoy  the 
hospitality   of  Valparaiso;    that   while  no    claim  that   an   attack  which   an 
individual  sailor  may  be  subjected  to  raises  an  international    The  American 
question,  yet  where  the  resident  population  assault  sailors  of      Case  Pre- 
another  country's  war  vessels,  as  at  Valparaiso,  animated  by  an      sented 
animosity  against  the  government  to  which  they  belong,  that  government 
must  act  as  it  would  if  the  representatives'  or  flag  of  the  nation  had  been 
attacked,  since  the  sailors  are  there  by  the  order  of  their  government. 

Finally  an  ultimatum  was  sent  from  the  State  department  at  Washing- 
ton,  on  the   25th,  to   Minister  Egan,  .and  was  by  him  transmitted  to  the 
proper  Chilian  authorities.      It  demanded  the  retraction  of  Mr.  Malta's  note 
and  suitable  apology  and  reparation  for  the  insult  and  injury    chili  Offers  an 
sustained   by   the    United   States.      On   the   28th   of  January,       Apology  and 
1892,   a  dispatch   from   Chili  was  received,  in   which  the  de-       Reparation 
mands  of  our  government  were  fully  acceded  to,  the  offensive  letter  was 
withdrawn,  and  regret  was  expressed  for  the  occurrence.      In  his  relation  to 
this  particular  case,  Minister  Egan's  conduct  received  the  entire  approval  of 
his  government. 

While  the  United  States  looked  for  a  peaceful  solution  of  this  annoy- 
ing international  episode,  the  proper  preparations  were  made  for  a  less 
desirable  outcome.  Our  naval  force  was  put  in  as  efficient  a  condition  as 
possible,  and  the  vessels  which  were  then  in  the  navy  yard  were  got 
ready  for  service  with  all  expedition.  If  the  Chilian  war-scare  did  nothing 
else,  it  aroused  a  wholesome  interest  in  naval  matters  throughout  the  whole 
of  the  United  States,  and  by  focusing  attention  upon  the  needs  of  this 
branch  of  the  public  service,  showed  at  once  how  helpless  we  might  become 
in  the  event  of  a  war  with  any  first-class  power.  We  may  thank  Chili  that 
to-day  the  United  States  Navy  is  in  a  better  condition  than  at  any  time  in 
our  history. 

When  the  great  Napoleon  was  overthrown,  France,  Russia,  Prussia 
and  Austria  formed  an  alliance  for  preserving  the  "balance  of  power"  and 
for  suppressing  revolutions  within  one  another's  dominions.  This  has  been 
spoken  of  in  a  preceding  chapter  as  the  "  Holy  Alliance."  At  the  time 
the  Spanish  South  American  colonies  were  in  revolt,  and  the  alliance  had 
taken  steps  indicating  an  intention  to  aid  in  their  reduction.  George  Can- 
ning, the  English  secretary  of  state,  proposed  to  our  country  that  we  should 
unite  with  England  in  preventing  such  an  outrage  against 
civilization.  It  was  a  momentous  question,  and  President 
Monroe  consulted  with  Jefferson,  Madison,  Calhoun  and 
John  Quincy  Adams,  the  secretary  of  state,  before  making  answer.  The 


396  THE  UNITED  STATES  SUSTAINS  ITS  DIGNITY  ABROAD 

decision  being  reached,  the  President  embodied  in  his  annual  message  to 
Congress  in  December,  1823,  a  clause  which  formulated  what  has  ever  since 
been  known  as  the  "  Monroe  Doctrine."  It  was  written  by  John  Quincy 
Adams,  and,  referring  to  the  intervention  of  the  allied  powers,  said  that  we 
"  should  consider  any  attempt  on  their  part  to  extend  their  system  to  any 
portion  of  this  hemisphere  as  dangerous  to  our  peace  and  safety  ;"  and 
further,  "that  the  American  continents,  by  the  free  and  independent  condi- 
tion which  they  have  assumed  and  maintain,  are  henceforth  not  to  be  con- 
sidered as  subjects  for  future  colonization  by  any  European  powers." 

By  the  Monroe  Doctrine  the  United  States  formally  adopted  the  posi- 
tion of  guardian  of  the  weaker  American  States,  and  since  its  promulgation 
there  have  been  few  aggressions  of  European  nations  in  America,  and  none 
in  which  the  United  States  has  not  decisively  warned  them 
off.  The  most  striking  instances  may  be  stated.  When, 
during  the  troubles  in  Cuba,  France  and  Great  Britain  sug- 
gested an  alliance  with  the  United  States  to  look  after  affairs  in  that 
quarter,  they  were  given  plainly  to  understand  that  this  country  would 
attend  to  that  matter  itself  and  would  brook  no  interference  on  the  part  of 
foreign  powers.  It  also  intimated  that,  in  the  event  of  Spain  giving  up  her 
authority  in  Cuba  from  any  cause,  the  United  States  proposed  to  act  as 
the  sole  arbiter  of  the  destinies  of  the  island.  Since  that  date  no  European 
power  has  shown  any  inclination  to  interfere  in  Cuban  affairs. 

The  only  decided  effort  to  set  at  naught  the  Monroe  Doctrine  was 
made  by  France  during  the  American  Civil  War.  Taking  advantage  of 
.  .  the  difficulties  under  which  our  government  then  labored, 
and  the  Fate  France  landed  an  army  in  Mexico,  overthrew  the  republic, 
of  Maximilian  established  an  empire,  and  placed  Maximilian,  a  brother  of 
the  Emperor  of  Austria,  upon  its  throne.  All  went  well  with  the  new 
emperor  until  after  the  close  of  our  Civil  War ;  then  all  began  to  go  ill. 
The  Monroe  Doctrine  raised  its  head  again,  and  the  French  were  plainly 
bidden  to  take  their  troops  from  Mexico  if  they  did  not  want  trouble. 
Napoleon  III.  was  quick  to  take  the  hint,  and  to  withdraw  his  army.  Max- 
imilian was  advised  to  go  with  it,  but  he  unwisely  declined,  fancying  that 
he  could  maintain  his  seat  upon  the  Mexican  throne.  He  was  quickly 
undeceived.  The  liberals  sprang  to  arms,  defeated  with  ease  his  small 
army,  and  soon  had  him  in  their  hands.  A  few  words  complete  the  story. 
He  was  tried  by  court  martial,  condemned  to  death,  and  shot.  Thus  ended 
in  disaster  the  most  decided  attempt  to  set  at  naught  the  Monroe  Doctrine 
of  American  guardianship. 


THE  UNITED  STATES  SUSTAINS  ITS  DIGNITY  ABROAD          397 

A  second  effort,  less  piratical  in  its  character,  was  the  attempt  of  Great 
Britain  to  extend  the  borders  of  British  Guiana  at  the  expense  of  Venezuela. 

To  a  certain    degree  Great  Britain  seems  to  have   had  right  „ 

&.  .  &         The  Venezuelan 

on  its  side  in  this  movement,  but  its  methods  were  those  Boundary  and 
used  by  strong  nations  when  dealing  with  weak  ones,  the  tne  Monr°~ 
demand  of  Venezuela  for  arbitration  was  scornfully  ignored, 
and  force  was  used  to  support  a  claim  whose  justice  no  effort  was  made  to 
show.  These  high-handed  proceedings  were  brought  to  a  quick  termination 
by  the  action  of  the  United  States,  which  offered  itself  as  the  friend  and 
ally  of  Venezuela  in  the  dispute.  President  Cleveland  insisted  on  an  arbitra- 
tion of  the  difficulty  in  words  that  had  no  uncertain  ring,  and  the  states- 
men of  Great  Britain,  convinced  that  he  meant  just  what  he  said,  submitted 
with  what  grace  they  could.  A  court  of  arbitration  was  appointed,  the 
boundary  question  put  into  its  hands  to  settle,  and  peace  and  satisfaction 
reigned  again.  The  Monroe  Doctrine  had  once  more  decisively  asserted 
itself.  By  the  decision  of  the  court  of  arbitration  each  country  got  the 
portion  of  the  disputed  territory  it  most  valued,  and  both  were  satisfied. 
Thus  peace  has  its  triumphs  greater  than  those  of  war. 

These  are  not  offered  as  the  only  occasions  in  which  the  United  States 
has  come  into  hostile  relations  with  foreign  powers  and  has  sustained  its 
dignity  with  or  without  war,  but  they  are  the  most  striking  ones,  unless  we 
include  in  this  category  the  Mexican  war.  Various  disputes  of  a  minor 
character  have  arisen,  notably  with  Great  Britain,  the  latest  being  that  con- 
cerning the  Alaskan  boundary;  but  those  given  are  the  only  instances  that 
seem  to  call  for  attention  here. 


CHAPTER  XXVII. 

Webster  and  Clay  and  the  Preservation  of  the  Union, 

DURING  the  first  half  of  the  nineteenth  century  a  number  of  great 
questions  came  up  in  American  politics  and  pressed  for  solution. 
There  was  abundance  of  hostilities — wars  with  Great   Britain,   the 
Barbary  states,   Mexico  and   the  Indians — and  international    difficulties   of 
various  kinds.     The  most  important  of  these  we  have  described.     We  have 
now  to  consider  questions  of  internal  policy,  problems  arising  in  the   devel- 
opment of   the  nation  which  threatened  its  peace  and  pros- 
Questions  of  in-  perjty    and  to   deal  with   which   called  for   the   most   earnest 
ternal  Policy  /'.  ....  ..   .      . 

patriotism    and    the    highest    statesmanship     in    the    political 

leaders  of  the  commonwealth.  Among  these  leaders  two  men  loomed  high 
above  their  contemporaries,  Daniel  Webster,  the  supreme  orator  and 
staunch  defender  of  the  Union,  and  Henry  Clay,  the  great  peace-maker, 
whose  hand  for  years  stayed  the  waves  of  the  political  tempest  and  more 
than  once  checked  legislative  hostilities  in  their  early  stage.  It  was  not  until 
Clay  had  passed  from  the  scene  that  one  of  the  national  problems  alluded  to 
plunged  the  country  into  civil  war  and  racked  the  Union  almost  to  the 
point  of  dissolution. 

Of  these  great  political  questions,  danger  to  the  Union  arose  from  two, 
the  problem  of  the  tariff  and  the  dispute  over  the  institution  of  slavery. 
There  were  others  of  minor  importance,  prominent  among  them  those  of 
internal  improvement  at  government  expense,  and  of  state 
rights,  or  the  degree  of  independence  of  the  states  under  the 
Federal  Union,  but  it  was  the  first  two  only  that  threatened 
the  existence  of  the  nation,  and  in  dealing  with  which  the  noblest  states- 
manship and  the  most  fervid  and  convincing  oratory  were  called  into  play. 
The  subject  of  slavery  in  particular  gloomed  above  the  nation  like  a  terrible 
thunder  cloud.  All  other  questions  of  domestic  policy — tariff,  currency, 
internal  improvements,  state  rights — were  subordinate  to  the  main  ques- 
tion of  how  to  preserve  the  Union  under  this  unceasing  threat.  Some, 
like  Calhoun,  were  ready  to  abandon  the  Union  that  slavery  might  be 
saved  ;  others,  like  Garrison,  were  ready  to  abandon  the  Union  that  slavery 
might  be  destroyed.  Between  these  extremes  stood  many  able  and  patriotic 
398 


THE  PRESERVATION  OF  THE  UNION  399 

statesmen,  who,  to  save  the  Union,  were  ready  to  make  any  sacrifice  and 
join  in  any  compromise.  And  high  among"  these,  for  more  than  fifty  years, 
stood  the  noble  figure  of  Henry  Clay. 

Not  often  does  a  man  whose  life  is  spent  in  purely  civil  affairs  become 
such  a  popular  hero  and  idol  as  did  Clay  —  especially  when  it  is  his  fate 
never  to  reach  the  highest  place  in  the  people's  gift.  "Was  there  ever," 
says  Parton,  "  a  public  man,  not  at  the  head  of  a  state,  so  be- 


loved as  he  ?     Who  ever  heard  such  cheers,  so  hearty,  distinct       ^'s  pr<fat 

'  Popularity 

and  ringing,  as  those  which  his  name  evoked  ?  Men  shed 
tears  at  his  defeat,  and  women  went  to  bed  sick  from  pure  sympathy  with 
his  disappointment.  He  could  not  travel  during  the  last  thirty  years  of  his 
life,  but  only  make  progresses.  When  he  left  home  the  public  seized  him 
and  bore  him  along  over  the  land,  the  committee  of  one  state  passing  him 
on  to  the  committee  of  another,  and  the  hurrahs  of  one  town  dying  away  as 
those  of  the  next  caught  his  ear." 

Born  a  poor  boy,  who  had  to  make  his  way  up  from  the  lowest  state  o." 
frontier  indigence,  he  was  favored  by  nature  with  a  kindly  soul,  the  finest 
and  most  effective  powers  of  oratory,  and  a  voice  of  the  most  admirable 
character  ;  one  of  deep  and  rich  tone,  wonderful  volume,  and  sweet  and 
tender  harmony,  which  invested  all  he  said  with  majesty,  and  swept 
audiences  away  as  much  by  its  musical  and  swelling  cadences  as  by  the 
logic  and  convincing  nature  of  his  utterances. 

After  years  of  active  and  useful  labor  in  Congress,  it  was  in  1818  that 
Clay  first  stepped  into  the  arena  for  the  calming  of  the  passions  of  Con- 
gress and  the  preservation  of  the  Union,  a  duty  to  which  he  devoted  him- 
self for  the  remainder  of  his  life.  In  the  year  named  a  petition  for.  the 
admission  of  Missouri  into  the  Union  was  presented  in  Congress,  and  with 
it  began  that  long  and  bitter  struggle  over  slavery  which  did  not  end  until 
the  surrender  of  Lee  at  Appomattox  in  1865. 

For  years  the  sentiment  in  favor  of  slavery  had  been  growing  stronger 
in  the  South.  At  one  time  many  of  the  wisest  southern  statesmen  and 

planters  disapproved  of  the  institution  and  proposed  its  aboli- 

T->          i       •  •  r    1  •      i       TM-  iiT-i  •  •       The  Slavery 

tion.      But  the  invention  of  the  cotton  gin  by  Kli  Whitney,  in       sentiment 

1793,  and  the  subsequent  great  development  of  the  cotton 
culture  had  decidedly  changed  the  situation.  By  1800  the  value  of  the 
cotton  product  had  advanced  to  $5,700.000,  In  1820  it  had  made  another 
great  advance,  and  was  valued  at  nearly  $20,000,000.  There  was  now  no 
thought  of  doing  away  with  the  use  of  slaves,  but  a  strong  sentiment  had 
arisen  in  the  South  in  favor  of  extending  the  area  in  which  slave  labor 
could  be  employed. 


400  THE  PRESERVATION  OF  THE  UNION 

In  the  North  a  different  state  of  feeling  existed.  Slavery  was  believed 
to  be  a  wrong  and  an  injury  to  American  institutions,  though  no  movement 
for  its  abolition  had  been  started.  Many  people  thought  it  ought  to  and 

would  disappear  in  time,  but  there  was  no  idea  of  taking:  steps 
The  Admission  t  . ,.  ,  .  .  ,  .,,  ?  , 

of  Missouri      ^-o  eni°rce    its    disappearance.      But  when,  in  the  bill    for  the 

admission  of  Missouri,  there  was  shown  a  purpose  of  extend- 
ing the  area  of  slavery,  northern  sentiment  became  alarmed  and  a  strong 
opposition  to  this  project  developed  in  Congress. 

It  was  the  sudden  revelation  of  a  change  of  feeling  in  the  South  which 
the  North  had  not  observed  in  its  progress.  "The  discussion  of  this  Mis- 
souri question  has  betrayed  the  secret  of  their  souls,"  wrote  John  Quincy 
Adams.  The  slaveholders  watched  with  apprehension  the  steady  growth  of 
the  free  states  in  population,  wealth  and  power.  In  1790  the  population 
of  the  two  sections  had  been  nearly  even.  In  1820  there  was  a  difference 
of  over  600,000  in  favor  of  the  North  in  a  total  of  less  than  ten  millions. 
In  1790  the  representation  of  the  two  sections  in  Congress  had  been  about 
evenly  balanced.  In  1820  the  census  promised  to  give  the  North  a  prepon- 
derance of  more  than  thirty  votes  in  the  House  of  Representatives.  If 
the  South  was  to  retain  its  political  equality  in  Congress,  or  at  least  in  the 
Senate,  it  must  have  more  slave  states,  and  there  now  began  a  vigorous 
jtruggle  with  this  object  in  view.  It  was  determined,  if  possible,  to  have 
as  many  states  as  the  North,  and  it  was  with  this  purpose  that  it  fought  so 
hard  to  have  slavery  introduced  into  Missouri. 

The  famous  "  Missouri  Compromise,"  by  which  the  ominous  dispute  of 
1820  was  at  last  settled,  included  the  admission  of  one  free  state  (Maine) 
and  one  slave  state  (Missouri)  at  the  same  time,  and  it  was  enacted  that  no 
other  slave  state  should  be  formed  out  of  any  part  of  the  Louisiana 
territory  north  of  thirty-six  degrees  thirty  minutes,  which 
The  Missouri  wag  the  southern  boundary  line  of  Missouri.  The  assent  of 

Compromise  '  111, 

opposing  parties  to  this  arrangement  was  secured  largely  by 

the  patriotic  efforts  of  Clay,  who,  says  Schurz,  "  did  not  confine  himself  to 
speeches,  *  *  *  but  went  from  man  to  man,  expostulating,  beseeching, 
persuading,  in  his  most  winning  way.  *  *  *  His  success  added  greatly 
to  his  reputation  and  gave  new  strength  to  his  influence."  The  result,  says 
John  Quincy  Adams,  was  "to  bring  into  full  display  the  talents  and  re- 
sources and  influence  of  Mr.  Clay."  He  was  praised  as  "the  great  pacifi- 
cator"— a  title  which  was  confirmed  by  the  deeds  of  his  later  life. 

Clay  served  as  secretary  of  state  during  the  administration  of  John 
Quincy  Adams,  but  in  1829,  when  Jackson,  his  bitter  enemy,  succeeded  to 
the  presidency,  he  retired  for  a  short  season  to  private  life  in  his  beautiful 


THE  PRESERVATION  OF  THE  UNION  401 

Kentucky  home.  But  he  was  not  long  to  remain  there;  in  1831  he  was - 
again  elected  to  the  Senate,  where  he  remained  until  1842.  They  were 
stormy  years.  In  South  Carolina  the  opposition  to  the  protective  tariff  had 
led  to  the  promulgation  of  the  famous  "  nullification  "  theory — the  doctrine 
that  any  state  had  the  power  to  declare  a  law  of  the  United  States  null 
and  void.  Jackson,  whose  anger  was  thoroughly  aroused,  dealt  with  the 
revolt  in  summary  fashion,  threatening  that  if  any  resistance  to  the  govern- 
ment was  attempted  he  would  instantly  have  the  leaders  arrested  and 
brought  to  trial  for  treason.  Nevertheless,  to  allay  the  discontent  of  the 
South,  Clay  devised  his  Compromise  Tariff  of  1833,  under  which  the  duties 
were  to  be  gradually  reduced,  until  they  should  reach  a  minimum  of  twenty 
per  cent.  In  1832  he  allowed  himself,  very  unwisely,  to  be  a  candidate  for 
the  presidency,  Jackson's  re-election  being  a  foregone  conclusion.  In  1836 
he  declined  a  nomination,  and  Van  Buren  was  elected.  Then  followed  the 
panic  of  1837,  which  insured  the  defeat  of  the  party  in  power,  and  the  elec- 
tion of  the  Whig  candidate  at  the  following  presidential  election  ;  but  the 
popularity  of  General  Jackson  had  convinced  the  party  managers  that  suc- 
cess demanded  a  military  hero  as  a  candidate  ;  and  accordingly  General 
Harrison,  "the  hero  of  Tippecanoe,"  was  elected,  after  the  famous  "Log 
Cabin  and  Hard  Cider  campaign"  of  1840.  This  slight  was  deeply  morti- 
fying to  Clay,  who  had  counted  with  confidence  upon  being  the  candidate 
of  the  party.  "  I  am  the  most  unfortunate  man  in  the  history  of  parties," 
he  truly  remarked ;  "  always  run  by  my  friends  when  sure  to  be  defeated, 
and  now  betrayed  for  a  nomination  when  I,  or  any  one  else,  would  be  sure 
of  an  election." 

In    1844,  however,  Clay's   opportunity  came  at  last.      He  was  so  obvi- 
ously the  Whig  candidate  that  there  was  no  opposition.      The    clay  as  a 
convention  met  at   Baltimore  in   May,  and  he  was  nominated       Presidential 
by  acclamation,  with  a  shout  that  shook  the  building.      Every-      Candidate 
thing  appeared   to   indicate   success,   and   his  supporters  regarded   his  tri- 
umphant election  as  certain. 

But  into  the  politics  of  the  time  had  come  a  new  factor — the  "  Liberty 
party."  This  had  been  hitherto  considered  unimportant  ;  but  the  proposed 
annexation  of  Texas,  which  had  become  a  prominent  question,  was  opposed 
by  many  in  the  North  who  had  hitherto  voted  with  the  Whig  party.  Clay 
was  a  slaveholder ;  and  though  he  had  opposed  the  extension  of  slavery,  his 
record  was  not  satisfactory  to  those  who  disapproved  of  the  annexation  of 
Texas.  In  truth,  the  opposition  to  slavery  in  the  North  was  rapidly  gaining 
political  strength,  while  the  question  of  the  annexation  of  Texas  was  looked 
upon  as  one  for  the  extension  of  the  "peculiar  institution,"  since  Texas 


402  THE  PRESERVATION  OF  THE  UNION 

would,  under  the   Missouri  Compromise,  fall  into  line  as  a  slave   state,  and 
was  large  enough,  if  Congress  should  permit,  to  be  cut  up  into  a  number  ol 

slave  states.  Clay  was  between  two  fires.  He  was  distrusted 
T1^g"test  in  the  South  ;  while  his  competitor,  Polk,  was  pledged  to 

support  the  annexation  of  Texas.  He  was  doubted  in  the 
North  as  a  slaveholder.  His  old  enemy,  Jackson,  used  his  influence  strongly 
against  him.  The  contest  finally  turned  upon  the  vote  of  New  York,  and 
that  proved  so  close  that  the  suspense  became  painful.  People  did  not  go 
to  bed,  waiting  for  the  delayed  returns.  The  contest  was  singularly  like 
that  of  Elaine  and  Garfield,  forty  years  later,  when  the  result  again  turned 
upon  a  close  vote  in  the  State  of  New  York.  When  at  last  the  decisive 
news  was  received,  and  the  fact  of  Clay's  defeat  was  assured,  the  Whigs 
broke  out  in  a  wail  of  agony  all  over  the  land.  "It  was,"  says  Nathan  Sar- 
gent, "as  if  the  first-born  of  every  family  had  been  stricken  down."  The 
descriptions  we  have  of  the  grief  manifested  are  almost  incredible.  Tears 
flowed  in  abundance  from  the  eyes  of  men  and  women.  -In  the  cities  and 
villages  the  business  places  were  almost  deserted  for  a  day  or  two,  people 
gathering  together  in  groups  to  discuss  in  low  tones  what  had  happened. 
The  Whigs  were  fairly  stunned  by  their  defeat,  and  the  Democrats  failed 
to  indulge  in  demonstrations  of  triumph,  it  being  widely  felt  that  a  great 
wrong  had  been  done.  It  was  the  opinion  of  many  that  there  would  be  no 
hope  thereafter  of  electing  the  great  statesmen  of  the  country  to  the 
presidency,  and  that  this  high  office  would  in  future  be  attained  only  by 
men  of  second-rate  ability. 

The  last  and  greatest  work  of  the  life  of  Henry  Clay  was  the  famous 
Compromise  of  1850,  which  has  been  said  to  have  postponed  for  ten  years 

the  great  Civil  War.      At  that   period  the  sentiment   against 
raise  of Pi8so      slavery  was  rapidly  increasing  in    the  North   and  had   gained 

great  strength.  Though  the  number  of  free  and  slave  states 
continued  equal,  the  former  were  fast  surpassing  the  latter  in  wealth  and 
population. 

It  was  evident  that  slavery  must  have  more  territory  or  lose  its  political 
influence.  Shut  out  of  the  northwest  by  the  Missouri  Compromise,  it  was 
supposed  that  a  great  field  for  its  extension  had  been  gained  in  Texas  and  the 
territory  acquired  from  Mexico.  But  now  California,  a  part  of  this  territory 
which  had  been  counted  upon  for  slavery,  was  populated  by  a  sudden  rush 
of  northern  immigration,  attracted  by  the  discovery  of  gold  ;  and  a  state 
government  was  organized  with  a  constitution  excluding  slavery,  thus 
giving  the  free  states  a  majority  of  one.  Instead  of  adding  to  the  area  of 
slavery,  the  Mexican  territory  seemed  likely  to  increase  the  strength  of 


THE  PRESERVATION  OF  THE  UNION  403 

freedom.  The  South  was  both  alarmed  and  exasperated.  Threats  of  dis- 
union were  freely  made.  It  was  clear  that  prompt  measures  must  be  taken 
to  allay  the  prevailing  excitement,  if  disruption  were  to  be  avoided.  In  such 
an  emergency  it  was  natural  that  all  eyes  should  turn  to  the  "great  pacifi- 
cator," Henry  Clay. 

When,  at  the  session  of  1849-50,  he  appeared  in  the  Senate  to  assist,  if 
possible,  in  removing  the  slavery  question  from  politics,  Clay  was  an  infirm 
and  serious,  but  not  sad,  old  man  of  seventy-two.  He  never  lost  his  cheer- 
fulness or  faith,  but  he  felt  deeply  for  his  distracted  country.  During  that 
memorable  session  of  Congress  he  spoke  seventy  times.  Often  extremely 

sick  and  feeble,  scarcely  able,  with  the  assistance  of  a  friend's 

1 .      ,       ,  r     i       /—       •      i     i  i  An  Orator  of 

arm,  to  climb  the  steps  of  the  Capitol,  he  was  never  absent  seventy-two 
on  the  days  when  the  compromise  was  to  be  debated.  On 
the  morning  on  which  he  began  his  great  speech,  he  was  accompanied  by  a 
clerical  friend,  to  whom  he  said,  on  reaching  the  long  flight  of  steps  leading 
to  the  Capitol,  "  Will  you  lend  me  your  arm,  my  friend  ?  for  I  find  myself 
quite  weak  and  exhausted  this  morning."  Every  few  steps  he  was  obliged 
to  stop  and  take  breath.  "  Had  you  not  better  defer  your  speech  ?"  asked 
the  clergyman.  "  My  dear  friend,"  said  the  dying  orator,  "  I  consider  our 
country  in  danger  ;  and  if  I  can  be  the  means,  in  any  measure,  of  averting 
that  danger,  my  health  or  life  is  of  little  consequence."  When  he  rose  to 
speak  it  was  but  too  evident  that  he  was  unfit  for  the  task  he  had  under- 
taken. But  as  he  kindled  with  his  subject,  his  cough  left  him,  and  his  bent 
form  resumed  all  its  wonted  erectness  and  majesty.  He  may,  in  the  prime 
of  his  strength,  have  spoken  with  more  energy,  but  never  with  so  .much 
pathos  or  grandeur.  His  speech  lasted  two  days  ;  and  though  he  lived  two 
years  longer,  he  never  recovered  from  the  effects  of  the  effort.  The  ther- 
mometer in  the  Senate  chamber  marked  nearly  100  degrees.  Toward  the 
close  of  the  second  day,  his  friends  repeatedly  proposed  an  adjournment ; 
but  he  would  not  desist  until  he  had  given  complete  utterance  to  his 
feelings.  He  said  afterwards  that  he  was  not  sure,  if  he  gave  way  to  an 
adjournment,  that  he  should  ever  be  able  to  resume. 

Never  was  Clay's  devotion  to  the  Union  displayed  in  such  thrilling  and 
pathetic  forms  as  in  the  course  of  this  long  debate.  On  one  occasion  allu- 
sion was.  made  to  a  South  Carolina  hot-head,  who  had  publicly 

in  r     i-          •  «Ti          /-I  i     Clay's  Tribute 

proposed  to  raise  the  flag  of  disunion.     When  Clay  retorted      to  the  Union 
by  saying,  that,    if    Mr.    Rhett    had    really    meant    that    pro- 
position, and  should  follow  it  up    by  corresponding  acts,  he   would   be  a 
traitor,  and  added,  "and   I   hope  he  will  meet  a  traitor's  fate,"  thunders  of 
applause  broke  from  the  crowded  galleries.     When  the  chairman  succeeded 


404  THE  PRESERVATION  OF  THE  UNION 

in  restoring  silence,  Mr.  Clay  made  that  celebrated  declaration  which  was  so 
frequently  quoted  in  1861  :  "  If  Kentucky  to-morrow  shall  unfurl  the  banner 
of  resistance  unjustly,  I  will  never  fight  under  that  banner.  I  owe  para- 
mount allegiance  to  the  whole  Union,  a  subordinate  one  to  my  own 
state."  Again  :  "  The  senator  speaks  of  Virginia  being  my  country.  This 
Union,  sir,  is  my  country  ;  the  thirty  states  are  my  country  ;  Kentucky  is  my 
country,  and  Virginia,  no  more  than  any  state  in  the  Union."  And  yet 
again:  "There  are  those  who  think  that  the  Union  must  be  preserved  by 
an  exclusive  reliance  upon  love  and  reason.  That  is  not  my  opinion.  I 
have  some  confidence  in  this  instrumentality ;  but,  depend  upon  it,  no 
human  government  can  exist  without  the  power  of  applying  force,  and  the 
actual  application  of  it  in  extreme  cases." 

The  compromise  offered  by  Clay  became  known  as  the  "Omnibus  Bill," 
from  the  various  measures  it  covered.  It  embraced  the  following  provi- 
sions :  i.  California  should  be  admitted  as  a  free  state.  2.  New  Mexico 
and  Utah  should  be  formed  into  territories,  and  the  question  of  the  admis- 
sion of  slavery  be  left  for  their  people  to  decide.  3.  Texas  should  give  up 

part  of  the  territory  it  claimed,  and  be  paid  $10,000,000  as 
g.^"11  a  recompense.     4.   The    slave-trade    should   be  prohibited  in 

the  District  of  Columbia.  5.  A  stringent  law  for  the  return 
of  fugitive  slaves  to  their  masters  should  be  enacted. 

The  question  concerning  Texas  was  the  following :  Texas  claimed  that 
its  western  boundary  followed  the  Rio  Grande  to  its  source.  This  took  in 
territory  which  had  never  been  part  of  Texas,  but  the  claim  was  strongly 
pushed,  and  was  settled  in  the  manner  above  stated.  The  serious  question, 
however,  in  this  compromise  was  that  concerning  the  return  of  fugitive 
slaves.  When  an  effort  was  made  to  enforce  the  Fugitive  Slave  Law  great 
opposition  was  excited,  on  account  of  the  stringency  of  its  provisions.  The 
fugitive,  when  arrested,  was  not  permitted  to  testify  in  his  own  behalf  or  to 
claim  trial  by  jury,  and  all  persons  were  required  to  assist  the  United  States 
Effect  of  the  marshal,  when  called  upon  for  aid.  To  assist  a  fugitive  to 
Fugitive  Slave  escape  was  an  offence  punishable  by  fine  and  imprisonment. 

In  the  last  two  respects  the  law  failed  ;  and  its  severe  pro- 
visions added  greatly  to  the  strength  of  the  anti-slavery  party,  and  thus 
had  much  to  do  in  bringing  on  the  Civil  War. 

Side  by  side  with  Clay  in  the  senate  stood  another  and  greater  figure, 
the  majestic  presence  of  Daniel  Webster,  one  of  the  greatest  orators  the 
world  has  ever  known,  a  man  fitted  to  stand  on  the  rostrum  with  Demos- 
thenes, the  renowned  orator  of  Greece,  or  with  Chatham,  Burke,  or  Glad- 
stone of  the  British  parliament 


THE  PRESERVATION  OF  THE  UNION  405 

In  the  hall  of  the  United  States  Senate,  on  January  26,  1830,  occurred 
what  may  be  considered  the  most  memorable  scene  in  the  annals  of  Congress. 
It  was  then  that  Daniel  Webster  made  his  famous  "  Reply  to 
Hayne," — that  renowned  speech  which  has  been  declared  the 
greatest  oration  ever  made  in  Congress,  and  which,  in  its  far- 
reaching  effect  upon  the  public  mind,  did  so  much  to  shape  the  future  destiny 
of  the  American  Union.  That  speech  was  Webster's  crowning  work,  and  the 
event  of  his  life  by  which  he  will  be  best  known  to  posterity. 

Nothing  in  our  history  is  more  striking  than  the  contrast  between  the 
Union  of  the  time  of  Washington  and  the  Union  of  the  time  of  Lincoln. 
It  was  not  merely  that  in  the  intervening  seventy-two  years  the  republic 
had  grown  great  and  powerful  ;  it  was  that  the  popular  sentiment  toward 
the  Union  was  transformed.  The  old  feeling  of  distrust  and  jealousy  had 
given  place  to  a  passionate  attachment.  It  was  as  though  a  puny,  sickly, 
feeble  child,  not  expected  by  its  parents  even  to  live,  had  come  to  be  their 
strong  defense  and  support,  their  joy  and  pride.  A  weak  league  of  states 
had  become  a  strong  nation  ;  and  when  in  1861  it  was  attacked,  millions  of 
men  were  ready  to  fight  for  its  defence.  What  brought  about  this  great 
change  ?  What  was  it  that  stirred  the  larger  patriotism  that  gave  shape 
and  purpose  to  this  growing  feeling  of  national  pride  and  unity  ?  It  was  in 
a  great  degree  the  work  of  Daniel  Webster.  It  was  he  who  maintained  and 
advocated  the  theory  that  the  Federal  Constitution  created,  not  a  league, 
but  a  nation;  that  it  welded  the  people  into  organic  union,  supreme  and  per- 
petual. He  it  was  who  set  forth  in  splendid  completeness  the  picture  of  a 
great  nation,  inseparably  united,  commanding  the  first  allegiance  and  loyalty 
of  every  citizen  ;  and  who  so  fostered  and  strengthened  the  sentiment  of  union 
that,  when  the  great  struggle  came,  it  had  grcwn  too  strong  to  be  over- 
thrown. 

No  description  of  Daniel  Webster  is  complete  or  adequate  which  fails 
to  describe  his  extraordinary  personal  appearance.  In  face,  form  and  voice 
nature  did  her  utmost  for  him.  So  impressive  was  his  pre-  Webster's  Per- 
lence  that  men  commonly  spoke  of  this  man  of  five  feet  ten  sonal  Appear- 
inches  in  height  and  less  than  two  hundred  pounds  in  weight 
as  a  giant.  He  seemed  to  dwarf  those  surrounding  him.  His  head  was  very 
large,  but  of  noble  shape,  with  broad  and  lofty  brow,  and  strong  but  finely 
cut  features.  His  eyes  were  remarkable.  They  were  large  and  deep-set, 
and  in  the  excitement  of  an  eloquent  appeal  they  glowed  with  the  deep 
light  of  the  fire  of  a  forge.  His  voice  was  in  harmony  with  his  appearance. 
In  conversation  it -was  low  and  musical ;  in  debate  it  was  high  but  full.  In 
moments  of  excitement  it  rang  out  like  a  clarion,  whence  it  would  sink  into 
23 


406  THE  PRESERVATION  OF  THE  UNION 

notes  ol  the  solemn  richness  of  organ  tones,  while  the  grace  and  dignity  of 
nd  Per      ^s  manner  added  greatly  to  the  impressive   delivery  of   his 
sonai  Mag-       words.     That  wonderful  quality  which  we  call  personal   mag- 
netism of          netism,  the  power  of   impressing  by  one's  personality  every 
Webster  '         .    *  •         i     -    i        •        */r 

human    being    who    comes    near,    was    at    its    height    in    Mr. 

Webster.  He  never  punished  his  children.  It  sufficed,  when  they  did 
wrong,  to  send  for  them  and  look  at  them  in  silence.  The  look,  whether 
of  sorrow  or  anger,  was  rebuke  and  punishment  enough. 

As  an  orator,  Mr.  Webster's  most  famous  speeches  were  the  Plymouth 
Rock  address,  in  1820;  the  Bunker  Hill  Monument  address,  in  1825  ;  and  his 
orations  in  the  Senate  in  1830  in  reply  to  Hayne,  and  in  1850  on  Clay's 
Compromise  Bill.  Greatest  among  these  was  the  speech  in  reply  to  Robert 
Y.  Hayne,  of  South  Carolina,  on  the  26th  of  January,  1830.  The  Union 
was  threatened,  and  Webster  rose  to  the  utmost  height  of  his 
nT1Passi°ned  genius  in  this  thrilling  appeal  for  its  preservation 
and  endurance.  The  question  under  debate  was  the  right  of  a 
state  to  nullify  the  acts  of  Congress.  Hayne,  in  sustaining  the  affirmative 
of  this  dangerous  proposition,  had  bitterly  assailed  New  England,  and  had 
attacked  Mr.  Webster  by  caustic  personalities,  rousing  "  the  giant "  to  a 
crushing  reply. 

"There  was,"  says  Edward  Everett,  "a  very  great  excitement  in 
Washington,  growing  out  of  the  controversies  of  the  day,  and  the  action 
of  the  South  ;  and  party  spirit  ran  uncommonly  high.  There  seemed  to 
be  a  preconcerted  action  on  the  part  of  the  southern  members  to  break 
down  the  northern  men,  and  to  destroy  their  force  and  influence  by  a  pre- 
meditated onslaught. 

"  Mr.  Hayne's  speech  was  an  eloquent  one,  as  all  know  who  ever  read 
it.  He  was  considered  the  foremost  southerner  in  debate,  except  Calhoun, 
who  was  vice-president  and  could  not  enter  the  arena.  Mr.  Hayne  was  the 
champion  of  the  southern  side.  Those  who  heard  his  speech  felt  much 
alarm,  for  two  reasons  ;  first,  on  account  of  its  eloquence  and  power,  and 
second,  because  of  its  many  personalities.  It  was  thought  by  many  who 
heard  it,  and  by  some  of  Mr.  Webster's  personal  friends,  that  it  was  im- 
possible for  him  to  answer  the  speech. 

"  I   shared   a  little   myself   in   that   fear  and  apprehension,"   said   Mr. 

Everett.      "  I  knew  from  what  I  heard  concerning  General   Hayne's  speech 

that  it  was  a  very  masterly  effort,  and  delivered  with  a  great 

Hhi "the  Senate    ^ea^    °^  Power  an<^  with  an   air  of  triumph.      I   was  engaged 

on  that  day  in  a  committee    of  which    I   was  chairman,   and 

could  not  be  present  in  the  Senate.      But  immediately  after  the  adjournment, 


THE  PRESERVATION  OF  THE  UNION  407 

I  hastened  to  Mr,  Webster's  house,  with,  I  admit,  some  little  trepidation, 
not  knowing  how  I  should  find  him.  But  I  was  quite  re-assured  in  a 
moment  after  seeing  Mr.  Webster,  and  observing  his  entire  calmness.  He 
seemed  to  be  as  much  at  ease  and  as  unmoved  as  I  ever  saw  him.  Indeed, 
at  first  I  was  a  little  afraid  from  this  that  he  was  not  quite  aware  of  the 
magnitude  of  the  contest.  I  said  at  once  • 

"  '  Mr.  Hayne  has  made  a  speech  ?' 

"  '  Yes,  he  has  made  a  speech.' 

"  '  You  reply  in  the  morning  ?' 

"  'Yes,'  said  Mr.  Webster,  '  I  do  not  propose  to  let  the  case  go  by  de- 
fault, and  without  saying  a  word.' 

"  '  Did  you  take  notes,  Mr.  Webster,  of  Mr.  Hayne's  speech  ?' 

"  Mr.  Webster  took  from  his  vest  pocket  a  piece  of  paper  about  as  big 
as  the  palm  of  his  hand,  and  replied,  '  I  have  it  all :   that  is    \ye5Ster 
his  Speech.'  Prepares  for 

"I  immediately  arose,"  said  Mr.  Everett,  "and  remarked      Reply 
to  him  that  I  would  not  disturb  him  longer ;    Mr.  Webster  desired  me  not 
to  hasten,  as  he  had  no  desire  to  be  alone  ;   but  I  left." 

"On  the  morning  of  the  memorable  day,"  writes  Mr.  Lodge,  "the 
Senate  chamber  was  packed  by  an  eager  and  excited  crowd.  Every  seat  on 
the  floor  and  in  the  galleries  was  occupied,  and  all  the  available  standing- 
room  was  filled.  The  protracted  debate,  conducted  with  so  much  ability  on 
both  sides,  had  excited  the  attention  of  the  whole  country,  and  had  given 
time  for  the  arrival  of  hundreds  of  interested  spectators  from  all  parts  of 
the  Union,  and  especially  from  New  England. 

"In  the  midst  of  the  hush  of  expectation,  in  that  dead  silence  which 
is  so  peculiarly  oppressive  because  it  is  possible  only  when  many  human 
beings  are  gathered  together,  Mr.  Webster  arose.  His  personal  grandeur 
and  his  majestic  calm  thrilled  all  who  looked  upon  him.  With  perfect 
quietness,  unaffected  apparently  by  the  atmosphere  of  intense  feeling  about 
him,  he  said,  in  a  low,  even  tone  : 

" '  Mr.  President :  When  the  mariner  has  been  tossed  for  many  days  in 
thick  weather  and  on  an  unknown  sea,  he  naturally  avails  himself  of  the  first 
pause  in  the  storm,  the  earliest  glance  of  the  sun,  to  take  his   The  opening 
latitude  and  ascertain  how  far  the  elements  have  driven  him      of  a  Great 
from  his   true  course.      Let  us  imitate    this    prudence  ;    and        peec 
before  we  float  farther  on  the  waves  of  this  debate,  refer  to  the  point  from 
which  we  departe.d,  that  we  may,  at  least,  be  able  to  conjecture  where  we  are 
now.     I  ask  for  the  reading  of  the  resolution  before  the  Senate.' 


408  THE  PRESERVATION  OF  THE  VN1ON 

"  This  opening  sentence  was  a  piece  of  consummate  art.  The  simple 
and  appropriate  image,  the  low  voice,  the  calm  manner,  relieved  the  strained 
excitement  of  the  audience,  which  might  have  ended  by  disconcerting  the 
speaker  if  it  had  been  maintained.  Every  one  was  now  at  his  ease  ;  and 
when  the  monotonous  reading  of  the  resolution  ceased,  Mr.  Webster  was 
master  of  the  situation,  and  had  his  listeners  in  complete  control." 

With  breathless  attention  they  followed  him  as  he  proceeded.  The 
strong,  masculine  sentences,  the  sarcasm,  the  pathos,  the  reasoning,  the 
burning  appeals  to  love  of  state  and  country,  flowed  on  unbroken.  As 
his  feelings  warmed  the  fire  came  into  his  eyes  ;  there  was  a  glow  in  his 
swarthy  cheek ;  his  strong  right  arm  seemed  to  sweep  away  resistlessly 
the  whole  phalanx  of  his  opponents,  and  the  deep  and  melodious  cadences 
of  his  voice  sounded  like  harmonious  organ  tones  as  they  filled  the  chamber 
with  their  music.  Who  that  ever  read  or  heard  it  can  forget  the  closing 
passage  of  that  glorious  speech  ? 

"  When  my  eyes  shall  be  turned  to  behold  for  the  last  time  the  sun  in 
heaven,  may  I  not  see  him  shining  on  the  broken  and  dishonored  fragments 
of  a  once  glorious  Union  ;  on  states  dissevered,  discordant,  belligerent ;  on 
a  land  rent  with  civil  feuds,  or  drenched,  it  may  be,  in  fraternal  blood  !  Let 
their  last  feeble  and  lingering  glance  behold  rather  the  glori- 
ous  ens'§n  °f  ^ie  republic,  now  known  and  honored  through- 
out the  earth,  still  full  high  advanced,  its  arms  and  trophies 
streaming  in  their  original  lustre,  not  a  stripe  erased  or  polluted,  not  a  single 
star  obscured ;  bearing  for  its  motto  no  such  miserable  interrogatory  as, 
What  is  all  this  worth  ?  or  those  other  words  of  delusion  and  folly,  Liberty 
first,  and  Union  afterwards ;  but  everywhere,  spread  all  over  in  characters 
of  living  light,  blazing  on  all  its  ample  folds,  as  they  float  over  the  sea  and 
over  the  land,  that  other  sentiment,  dear  to  every  true  American  heart, — • 
LIBERTY  AND  UNION,  NOW  AND  FOREVER,  ONE  AND  INSEPARABLE  !" 

As  the  last  words  died  away  into  silence,  those  who  had  listened  looked 
wonderingly  at  each  other,  dimly  conscious  that  they  had  heard  one  of  the 
grand  speeches  which  are  landmarks  in  the  history  of  eloquence  ;  and  the 
men  of  the  North  and  of  New  England  went  forth  full  of  the  pride  of 
victory,  for  their  champion  had  triumphed,  and  no  assurance  was  needed  to 
prove  to  the  world  that  this  time  no  answer  could  be  made. 
Calhoun,  the  The  great  supporter  of  the  doctrine  which  Hayne  advo- 

Advocate  of      cated  and  which  Webster  tore  into  shreds  and  fragments,  the 
indefatigable    sustainer    of  the    institution    of  slavery   in   the 
United  States  Congress,  was  John  C.  Calhoun.     That  this  man  was  sincere 
in  his  conviction  that  slavery  was  morally  and  politically  right,  and  beneficial 


JOHN  QUINCY  ADAMS.    (1767-1848) 


ZACHARY  TAYLOR.    (1784-1850) 


HENRY   WARD  BKECHKR. 


JOHN  B.  GOUGH. 


HENRY  W.  GRADY. 


CHAUNCEY  M.  DEPEW.  WENDELL  PHILLIPS.  EDWARD  EVERETT. 

GREAT   AMERICAN   ORATORS   AND   STATESMEN. 


THE  PRESERVATION  OF  THE  UNION  4II 

alike  to  white  and  black,  to  North  and  South,  nc  one  has  questioned.  He 
was  one  of  the  most  upright  of  men;  one  devoid  of  pretence  or  conceal- 
ment ;  a  man  of  pure  honesty  of  purpose  and  great  ability,  and  in  conse- 
quence of  immense  influence.  His  own  state  followed  his  lead  with  unques- 
tioning faith,  and  it  is  not  too  much  to  say  that  the  slavery  conflict  was  in 
great  measure  due  to  the  doctrines  which  he  unceasingly  advocated  for  a 
quarter  of  a  century. 

Calhoun'is  equally  well  known   for  his  state  rights  championship  and 
in  connection  with  the  effort  of  South  Carolina  to  secede  from  the  Union, 
as  a  consequence  of  the  tariff  bill  of   1828.      This  measure,  which  consider- 
ably increased  the  duties  on  imports,  aroused  bitter  opposition  in  the  South, 
where  it  was  styled  the  "Tariff  of  Abominations."     On  its  passage  Calhoun 
prepared  a  vigorous  paper  called  the  "  South  Carolina  Exposi-   The  Soutn 
tion,"  in  which  he  maintained  that  the  Constitution  limited  the       Carolina  Ex- 
right  of   Congress   to  exact  tariff  charges  to  the  purpose  of      P°sitlon 
revenue  ;  that  protective  duties  were,  therefore,  unconstitutional  ;  and  that 
any  state  had  the  right  to  declare  an    unconstitutional   law  null   and  void, 
and  forbid   its  execution   in   that   state.      Such  was  the  famous  doctrine  of 
"  nullification." 

This  paper  was  issued  in  1828,  Calhoun  being  then  Vice-President  un- 
der Jackson,  and  as  such  president  of  the  senate.  In  1829,  the  long  debate 
on  the  question  :  "  Does  the  Constitution  make  us  one  sovereign  nation  or 
only  a  league  of  separate  states?"  reached  its  height.  Its  climax  came  in 
January,  1830,  in  the  remarkable  contest  between  Webster  and  Hayne, 
above  described.  Webster  showed  that  an  attempt  to  nullify  the  laws  of 
the  nation  was  treason,  and  would  lead  to  revolution,  in  the  employment 
of  armed  force  to  sustain  it. 

To  such  a  revolutionary  measure  South  Carolina  proceeded.    After  the 
presidential  election    of    1832,   Calhoun,  who   had    resigned  the  vice-presi- 
dency, called  a  convention  of  the   people  of  the  state,  which    The  Ordinance 
passed     the     famous     Ordinance    of     Nullification,    declaring      of  Nullifica- 
the  1828  tariff  null  and  void  in  that  state. 

The  passage  of  the  ordinance  created  intense  excitement  throughout 
the  states.  Everywhere  the  dread  of  civil  war  and  of  the  dissolution  of  the 
Union  "was  entertained.  Fortunately  there  was  a  Jackson,  and  not  a 
Buchanan,  in  the  presidential  chair.  Jackson  was  not  a  model  President 
under  ordinary  circumstances,  but  he  was  just  the  man  for  the  emergency  of 
this  character,  and  he  dealt  with  it  much  as  he  had  dealt  with  the  Spaniards 
in  Florida.  On 'December  10,  1832,  came  out  his  vigorous  proclamation 
against  nullification.  The  governor  of  South  Carolina  issued  a  counter- 


jI3  THE  PRESERVATION  OF  THE  UNION 

proclamation,  and  called  out  twelve  thousand  volunteers.      A  crisis   seemed 
at  hand.      Congress  passed  a  "  Force  Bill "  to  provide  for  the 

JaJIk^"an^         collection  of  the   revenue   in  South  Carolina,  though  Calhoun 
Nullification  .  ....  r   i      /•   ,  • 

— then  in  the  Senate — opposed  it  in  the  most  powerful  of  his 

speeches.  It  is  said  that  Jackson  warned  him  that,  if  any  resistance  to  the 
government  was  made  in  South  Carolina,  he  would  be  at  once  arrested  on 
a  charge  of  treason. 

The  President  made  prompt  preparations  to  suppress  the  threatened 
revolt  by  force  of  arms,  troops  and  naval  vessels  being  sent  to  Charleston. 
But  at  the  same  time  Congress  made  concessions  to  South  Carolina  and  the 
crisis  passed.  It  was  through  the  efforts  of  Henry  Clay  as  already  specified 

that  this  warcloud  was  dissipated.  The  tariff  question  settled, 
Calhoun  Seeks  ,  ,  .  ~>,  .  .  ,  ,. 

to  Force  tlv>      the  slavery  issue  grew  prominent.      I  he  agitation  ot  this  ques- 

issueof  tion,  from  1835  to  1850,  was  chiefly  the  work  of  one  man,  John  C. 

Calhoun.  Parton  says  that  "  the  labors  of  Mr.  Garrison  and 
Mr.  Wendell  Phillips  might  have  borne  no  fruit  during  their  lifetime,  if  Cal- 
houn had  not  made  it  his  business  to  supply  them  with  material.  '  I  mean 
to  force  the  issue  on  the  North,'  he  once  wrote  ;  and  he  did  force  it. 

This  chapter  cannot  be  more  fitly  closed  than  with  a  quotation  from 
Harriet  Martineau,  in  whose  "  Retrospect  of  Western  Travel "  we  find  the 
following  pen-picture  of  the  three  great  statesmen  above  treated  :  "  Mr. 
Clay  sitting  upright  on  the  sofa,  with  his  snuff-box  ever  in  his  hand,  would 
A  Pen  Picture  of  discourse  for  many  an  hour  in  his  even,  soft,  deliberate  tone, 
Three  Great  on  any  one  of  the  great  subjects  of  American  policy  which 

we  might  happen  to  start,  always  amazing  us  with  the  moder- 
ation of  estimate  and  speech  which  so  impetuous  a  nature  has  been  able  to 
attain.  Mr.  Webster,  leaning  back  at  his  ease,  telling  stories,  cracking 
jokes,  shaking  the  sofa  with  burst  after  burst  of  laughter,  or  smoothly  dis- 
coursing to  the  perfect  felicity  of  the  logical  part  of  one's  constitution,  would 
illuminate  an  evening  now  and  then.  Mr.  Calhoun,  the  cast-iron  man,  who 
looks  as  if  he  had  never  been  born  and  could  never  be  extinguished,  would 
come  in  sometimes  to  keep  our  understanding  on  a  painful  stretch  for  a 
short  while,  and  leave  us  to  take  to  pieces  his  close,  rapid,  theoretical,  illus- 
trated talk,  and  see  what  we  could  make  of  it.  We  found  it  usually  more 
worth  retaining  as  a  curiosity,  than  as  either  very  just  or  useful. 

"  I  know  of  no  man  who  lives  in  such  utter  intellectual  solitude.  He 
meets  men  and  harangues  by  the  fireside  as  in  the  Senate  ;  he  is  wrought 
like  a  piece  of  machinery,  set  going  vehemently  by  a  weight,  and  stops 
while  you  answer  ;  he  either  passes  by  what  you  say,  or  twists  it  into  a 
suitability  with  what  is  in  his  head,  and  begins  to  lecture  again." 


CHAPTER  XXVIII. 

The   Annexation  of  Texas  and  the  War    with 

Mexico. 

WE  have  spoken,  in  Chapter  xxiii,  of  the  revolt  of  Texas  from  Mexico 
and  the  annexation  of  the  newly  formed  republic  to  the  United 
States.      In  the  present  chapter  it  is  proposed  to  deal  more  fully 
with  this  subject  and  describe  its  results   in  the  war  with  Mexico.      In   the 
year  1821,  after  more  than  ten  years  of  struggle  for  freedom,    Mexico  Gains 
Mexico  won    its  independence    from    Spain,   and   soon   after      its  indepen- 
founded  a  constitutional  monarchy,  with  Augustin  de  Iturbide,       dence 
the  head  of  the  revolutionary  government,  as  emperor.     This  empire  did 
not  last  long.     General  Santa  Anna  proclaimed  a  republic  in  1823,  and  the 
emperor  was  obliged  to  resign  his  crown.      In  the  following  year  he  returned 
to  Mexico  with  the  hope  of  recovering  his  lost  crown  ;  but,  on  the  contrary, 
was   arrested    and  shot  as  a  traitor.      Mexico  is  not    a   good    country  for 
emperors.     About  forty  years  afterward,  a  second  emperor,  sent  there  by 
France,  was  disposed  of  in  the  same  manner. 

The  establishment  of  the  republic  was  followed  by  earnest  efforts  in 
favor  of  the  settlement  and  development  of  the  unoccupied  territory  of  the 
country,  and  Texas,  a  large  province  in  its  northeastern  boundary,  began  to  be 
settled  by  immigrants,  very  largely  from  the  United  States. 

,          A  •  1      •  The  Settlement 

13  y  1830  the   American  population   numbered    about    20,000,       Of  Texas 

being  much  in  excess  of  that  of  Mexican  origin.  These 
people  were  largely  of  the  pioneer  class,  bold,  unruly,  energetic  frontiersmen, 
difficult  to  control  under  any  government,  and  unanimous  in  their  detestation 
of  the  tyranny  of  Mexican  rule.  Their  American  spirit  rose  against  the 
dominance  of  those  whom  they  called  by  the  offensive  title  of  "  greasers, ' 
and  in  1832  they  broke  into  rebellion  and  drove  all  the  Mexican  troops  out 
of  the  country. 

It  was  this  revolt  that  brought  the  famous  Samuel  Houston  to  Texas. 
The  early  life  of  this  born  leader  had  been  spent  on  the  Tennessee  frontier, 
and  during  much  of  his  boyhood  he  had  lived  among  the  Cherokee  Indians, 
who  looked  up  to  him  as  to  one  of  their  head  chiefs.  He  fought  under 


414 


ANNEXATION  OF  TEXAS— WAR  WITH  MEXICO 


Jackson   in   the  war  of  1812,  and  was  desperately  wounded  in  the  Creek 
War.      He  subsequently  studied  law,  was  elected  to  Congress,  and  in  1827 
The  Career       became  governor  of  Tennessee.    An  unhappy  marriage  brought 
of  General     to  an  end  this  promising  part  of  his  career.     A  separation 
Houston        from  his  wife  was  followed  by  calumnies  on  the  part  of  her 
friends,  which  became  so  bitter  that  Houston,  in  disgust,  left  the  state  and 
proceeded  to  Arkansas,  where  for  three  years  he  lived  with  his  boyhood 
friends,  the  Cherokees.     The  outbreak  in  Texas  offered  a  promising  oppor- 
tunity to  a  man  of  his  ambitious  and  enterprising  disposition,  and  he.  set 
out  for  that  region  in  December,  1832. 

For  two  years  after  Houston  joined  fortunes  with  Texas  there  was  com- 
parative quiet  ;  but  immigration  went  on  in  a  steadily  increasing  stream, 
and  the  sentiment  for  independence  grew  stronger  every  day.  The  Mexi- 
can government,  in  fear  of  the  growing  strength  of  Texas,  ordered  that  the 
people  should  be  disarmed — a  decree  which  aroused  instant  re- 
War  in  Texas  bellion.  A  company  of  Mexican  soldiers  sent  to  the  little 
town  of  Gonzales,  on  the  Guadalupe,  to  remove  a  small  brass  six-pounder, 
was  met  a  few  miles  from  the  town  by  one  hundred  and  eighty  Texans,  who 
fell  upon  them  with  such  vigor  that  they  turned  and  fled,  losing  several  men. 
No  Texan  was  killed.  This  battle  was  called  "  the  Lexington  of  Texas." 

Then  war  broke  out  again  more  furiously  than  ever.  The  Mexican 
soldiers,  who  were  under  weak  and  incompetent  commanders,  were  again 
dispersed  and  driven  out  of  the  country.  But  now  Santa  Anna  himself,  the 
Mexican  dictator,  an  able  general,  but  a  false  and  cruel  man,  took  the  field. 
With  an  army  of  several  thousand  men,  he  crossed  the  Rio  Grande,  and 
marched  against  the  Texans. 

The  town  of  Bexar,  on  the  San   Antonio   River,  was  defended  by  a 
garrison  of  about  one  hundred  and  seventy-five  men.     Among  them  were 
two  whose  names  are  still  famous — David  Crockett,  the  renowned  pioneer, 
and  Colonel  James  Bowie,  noted  for  his  murderous  "  bowie-knife,"  his  duels, 
and  his  deeds  of  valor  and  shame.     The  company  was  commanded  by  Colonel 
W.    Barrett   Travis,    a  brave  young   Texan.     On   the   approach   of  Santa 
Anna,  they  took  refuge  in  the  Alamo,  about  half  a  mile  to  the  north  of  the  town. 
The    Alamo  was   an    ancient    Franciscan    mission    of   the    eighteenth 
century.     It  covered   an   area  of  about   three  acres,   surrounded  by  walls 
three  feet  thick  and  eight  feet  high.     Within  the  walls  were  a  stone  church 
The  Massacre      an(^   several    other    buildings.      For    two   weeks   it  withstood 
of  the  Alamo    Santa  Anna's  assaults.     A  shower  of  bombs  and  cannon-balls 
fell  incessantly  within  the  walls.     At  last,  after  a  brave  de- 
fense by  the  little  garrison,  the  fortress  was  captured,  in  the  early  morning 


ANNEXATION  OF  TEXAS— WAR   WITH  MEXICO 


415 


of  Sunday,  March  6,  1836.  After  the  surrender,  Travis,  Bowie  and 
Crockett,  with  all  their  companions,  were  by  Santa  Anna's  especial  com- 
mand massacred  in  cold  blood. 

But  this  was  not  the  worst ;  a  few  days  afterwards  a  company  of  over 
four  hundred  Texans,  under  Colonel  Fannin,  besieged  at  Goliad,  were  in- 
duced to  surrender,  under  Santa  Anna's  solemn  promises  of  protection. 
After  the  surrender  they  were  divided  into  several  companies,  marched  in 
different  directions  a  short  distance  out  of  the  town,  and  shot  down  like 
clogs  by  the  Mexican  soldiers.  Not  a  man  escaped. 

While  these  horrible  events  were  taking  place,  Houston  was  at  Gonza- 
les,  with  a  force  of  less  than  four  hundred  men.  Meetings  were  held  in  the 
different  settlements  to  raise  an  army  to  resist  the  Mexican  invasion  ;  and  a 
convention  of  the  people  issued  a  proclamation  declaring  Texas  a  free  and 
independent  republic.  It  was  two  weeks  before  General  Houston  received 
intelligence  of  the  atrocious  massacres  at  Bexar  and  Goliad,  and  of  Santa 
Anna's  advance.  The  country  was  in  a  state  of  panic.  Settlers  were 
everywhere  abandoning  their  homes,  and  fleeing  in  terror  at  the  approach 
of  the  Mexican  soldiers.  Houston's  force  of  a  few  hundred  men  was  the 
only  defense  of  Texas  ;  and  even  this  was  diminished  by  frequent  desertion 
from  the  ranks.  The  cause  of  Texan  freedom  seemed  utterly  hopeless. 

In  order  to  gain  time,  while  watching  his  opportunity  for  attack,  Hous- 
ton slowly  retreated  before  the  Mexican  army.      After  waiting  two  weeks 
for  reinforcements,  he  moved  toward  Buffalo  Bayou,  a  deep,  narrow  stream 
connecting  with   the   San  Jacinto    River,  about  twenty  miles  Qenerai  Houston 
southeast  of  the  present  city  of  Houston.      Here  he  expected      and  Santa 
to  meet  the  Mexican  army.     The  lines  being  formed,  General       Anna 
Houston  made  one  of  his  most  impassioned  and  eloquent  appeals  to  his  troops 
firing  every  breast  by  giving  as  a  watchword,  "  REMEMBER  THE  ALAMO." 

Soon  the  Mexican  bugles  rang  out  over  the  prairie,  announcing  the 
advance  guard  of  the  enemy,  almost  eighteen  hundred  strong.  The  rank 
and  file  of  the  patriots  was  less  than  seven  hundred  and  fifty  men.  Their 
disadvantages  only  served  to  increase  the  enthusiasm  of  the  soldiers  ;  and 
when  their  general  said,  "  Men,  there  is  the  enemy  ;  do  you  wish  to  fight  ?': 
the  universal  shout  was,  "  We  do  !  "  "  Well,  then,"  he  said,  "  remember  it 
is  for  liberty  or  death  ;  remember  the  Alamo  /  " 

At  the  moment  of  attack,  a  lieutenant  came  galloping  up,  his  horse 
covered  with  foam,  and  shouted  along  the  lines,  "  I've  cut  down  Vince's 
bridge."  Each  army  had  used  this  bridge  in  coming  to  the  battle-field,  and 
General  Houston 'had  ordered  its  destruction,  thus  preventing  all  hope  of 
escape  to  the  vanquished. 


416  ANNEXATION  OF  TEXAS— WAR   WITH  MEXICO 

Santa  Anna's  forces  were  in  perfect  order,  awaiting  the  attack,  and 
reserved  their  fire  until  the  patriots  were  within  sixty  paces  of  their  works. 
Then  they  poured  forth  a  volley,  which  went  over  the  heads  of  the  at- 
tackers, though  a  ball  struck  General  Houston's  ankle,  inflict- 
'm&  a  velT  Pamful  wound.  Though  suffering  and  bleeding, 
General  Houston  kept  his  saddle  during  the  entire  action. 
The  patriots  held  their  fire  until  it  was  given  to  the  enemy  almost  in  their 
very  bosoms,  and  then,  having  no  time  to  reload,  made  a  general  rush  upon 
the  foe,  who  were  altogether  unprepared  for  the  furious  charge.  The 
patriots  not  having  bayonets,  clubbed  their  rifles.  About  half-past  four  the 
Mexican  rout  began,  and  closed  only  with  the  night.  Seven  of  the  patriots 
were  killed  and  twenty-three  were  wounded  ;  while  the  Mexicans  had  six 
hundred  and  thirty-two  killed  and  wounded,  and  seven  hundred  and  thirty, 
among  whom  was  Santa  Anna,  made  prisoners. 

The  victory  of  San  Jacinto  struck  the  fetters  forever  from  the  hands  of 
Texas,  and  drove  back  the  standard  of  Mexico  beyond  the  Rio  Grande, 
never  to  return  except  in  predatory  and  transient  incursions.  General 
Houston  became  at  once  the  leading  man  in  Texas,  almost  universal  ap- 
plause following  him.  As  soon  as  quiet  and  order  were  restored,  he  was 
made  the  first  President  of  the  new  republic,  under  the  Constitution  adopted 
in  November,  1835. 

In  1837  the  republic  of  Texas  was  acknowledged  by  the  United  States, 
and  in  1840  by  Great  Britain,  France  and  Belgium.  The  population  was 
overwhelmingly  of  American  origin,  and  these  people  had  in  no  sense  lost 
their  love  for  their  former  country,  a  sentiment  in  favor  of  the  annexation 
of  the  "  Lone  Star  State"  to  the  United  States  being  from  the  first  enter- 
Texas  Applies  tained.  In  1837  a  formal  application  for  admission  as  a  state 
for  Admission  of  the  American  Union  was  made.  This  proposition  found 
to  the  Union  many  advocates  and  many  opposers  in  this  country,  it  being 
strongly  objected  to  by  northern  Congressmen  and  favored  by  those  from 
the  South.  The  controversy  turned  upon  the  question  of  the  extension  of 
the  area  of  slavery,  which  was  a  matter  of  importance  to  the  South,  while 
others  who  supported  it  held  large  tracts  of  land  in  Texas  which  they 
hoped  would  increase  in  value  under  United  States  rule. 

As  a  result  of  the  opposition,  the  question  remained  open  for  years, 
and  was  prominent  in  the  presidential  campaign  of  1844,  in  which  Henry 
Clay,  the  Whig  candidate,  was  defeated,  and  James  K.  Polk,  the  Demo- 
cratic candidate,  was  elected  on  the  annexation  platform.  This  settled  the 
dispute.  The  people  had  expressed  their  will  and  the  opposition  yielded. 
Both  Houses  of  Congress  passed  a  bill  in  favor  of  admitting  Texas  as  a 


ANNEXATION  OF  TEXAS— WAR  WITH  MEXICO  417 

state,  and  it  was  signed  by  President  Tyler  in  the  closing  hours  of  his 
administration.  The  offer  was  unanimously  accepted  by  the  legislature  of 
Texas  on  July  4,  1845,  and  it  became  a  state  of  the  American  Union  in 
December  of  that  year. 

In  admitting  Texas,  Congress  had  opened  the  way  to  serious  trouble. 
Though  Mexico  had  taken  no  steps  to  recover  its  lost  province,  it  had 
never  acknowledged  its  independence,  and  stood  over  it  somewhat  like  the 
dog  in  the  manger,  not  prepared  to  take  it,  yet  vigorously 

&.  .  5  F,     ]  j    •  T  Mexico  Protests 

protesting  against  any  other  power  doing  so.  Its  protest 
against  the  action  of  the  United  States  was  soon  followed  by  a  more 
critical  exigency,  an  active  boundary  dispute.  Texas  claimed  the  Rio 
Grande  River  as  her  western  boundary.  Mexico  held  that  the  Nueces 
River  was  the  true  boundary.  Between  these  two  streams  lay  a  broad  tract 
of  land  claimed  by  both  nations,  and  which  both  soon  sought  to  occupy. 
War  arose  in  consequence  of  this  ownership  dispute. 

In   the   summer    of    1845    President    Polk   directed    General    Zachary 
Taylor  to  proceed  to  Corpus  Christi,  on  the  Nueces,  and  in  the  spring  of 
1846   he   received  orders  to  march  to  the  Rio  Grande.     As  soon  as  this 
movement  was  made,  the  Mexicans  claimed  that  their  terri- 
tory had  been  invaded,  ordered  Taylor  to  retire,  and  on  his    A  Disputed 

*  '  Boundary 

refusal  sent  a  body  of  troops  across  the  river.  Both  countries 
were  ripe  for  war,  and  both  had  taken  steps  to  bring  it  on.  A  hostile 
meeting  took  place  on  April  24th,  with  some  loss  to  both  sides.  On  receiv- 
ing word  by  telegraph  of  this  skirmish,  the  President  at  once  sent  a  mes- 
sage to  Congress,  saying :  "  Mexico  has  passed  the  boundary  of  the  United 
States,  and  shed  American  blood  upon  American  soil.  *  *  *  War 
exists,  notwithstanding  'all  our  efforts  to  avoid  it." 

The   efforts  to   avoid   it  had  not  been  active.     There  was  rather  an 
effort    to    favor    it.     Abraham    Lincoln,    then    a    member   of   War  Declared 
Congress,    asked    pointedly   if   special    efforts  had    not   been      Against 
taken  to  provoke  a  war.      But  Congress  responded  favorably 
to  the  President's  appeal,  declared  that  war  existed  "  by  the  act  of  Mexico  " 
and  called  for  fifty  thousand  volunteers. 

The  declaration  of  war  was  dated  May  13,  1846.  Several  days  before 
this,  severe  fights  had  taken  place  at  Palo  Alto  and  Resaca  de  la  Palma,  on 
the  disputed  territory.  The  Mexicans  were  defeated,  and  retreated  across 
the  Rio  Grande.  They  were  quickly  followed  by  Taylor,  who  took  posses- 
sion of  the  town  of  Matamoras.  The  plan  of  war  laid  out  embraced  an 
invasion  of  Mexico'  from  four  quarters.  Taylor  was  to  march  southward 
from  his  position  on  the  Rio  Grande,  General  Winfield  Scott  to  advance  on 


418  ANNEXATION  OF  TEXAS— WAR  WITH  MEXICO 

the  capital  by  the  way  of  Vera  Cruz,  General  Stephen  W.  Kearny  to  in- 
vade New  Mexico,  and  California  was  to  be  attacked  by  a  naval  expedition, 
already  despatched. 

Taylor  was  quick  to  act  after  receiving  reinforcements.  He  advanced 
on  September  5th,  and  on  the  Qth  reached  Monterey,  a  strongly  fortified 
interior  town.  The  Mexicans  looked  upon  this  place  as  almost 
impregnable,  it  being  surrounded  by  mountains  and  ravines, 
difficult  to  pass  and  easy  of  defense.  Yet  the  Americans 
quickly  penetrated  to  the  walls,  and  were  soon  within  the  town,  where  a 
severe  and  bloody  conflict  took  place.  The  stormers  made  their  way  over 
the  house  roofs  and  through  excavations  in  the  adobe  walls,  and  in  four 
days'  time  were  in  possession  of  the  town  which  the  Mexicans  had  confi- 
dently counted  upon  stopping  their  march. 

Some  months  passed  before  Taylor  was  in  condition  to  advance  again, 
his  force  being  much  depleted  by  reinforcements  sent  to  General  Scott.  It 
was  February,  1847,  when  he  took  the  field  once  more,  reaching  a  position 
south  of  Monterey  known  as  Buena  Vista,  a  narrow  mountain 
^Buena  Vista  Pass>  with  hills  on  one  side  and  a  ravine  on  the  other.  This 
bold  advance  of  an  army  not  more  than  5,000  strong  seemed 
a  splendid  opportunity  to  Santa  Anna,  then  commander-in-chief  of  the 
Mexican  army,  who  marched  on  the  small  American  force  with  20,000  men. 
The  battle  that  followed  was  the  most  interesting  and  hard  fought  one  in 
the  war.  Santa  Anna  hoped  to  crush  the  Americans  utterly,  and  would 
perhaps  have  done  so  but  for  the  advantage  of  their  position  and  the  effec- 
tive service  of  their  artillery. 

"  You  are  surrounded  by  twenty  thousand  men,  and  cannot,  in  all 
human  probability,  avoid  suffering  rout  and  being  cut  to  pieces  with  your 
troops."  Such  were  the  alarming  words  with  which  the  Mexican  general 
accompanied  a  summons  to  General  Taylor  to  surrender  within  an  hour. 
Taylor's  answer  was  polite  but  brief.  "In  answer  to  your  note  of  this  date 
summoning  me  to  surrender  my  forces  at  discretion,  I  beg  leave  to  say  that 
I  decline  acceeding  to  your  request." 

General  Taylor,  or  "  Rough  and  Ready  "  as  he  was  affectionately  called 
by  his  men.  had  long  before — he  was  now  sixty-three  years  old — won  his  spurs 
on  the  battlefield.  He  was  short,  round-shouldered,  and, stout.  His  fore- 
head was  high,  his  eyes  keen,  his  mouth  firm,  with  the  lower  lip  protruding, 
his  hair  snow-white,  and  his  expression  betokened  his  essentially  humane 
and  unassuming  character.  No  private  could  have  lived  in  simpler  fashion. 
When  he  could  escape  from  his  uniform  he  wore  a  linen  roundabout,  cotton 
trousers,  and  a  straw  hat,  and,  if  it  rained,  an  old  brown  overcoat.  In  battl< 


Captain  May  leaped  his  steed  over  the  parapets,  followed  by  t 
gunners  the  next  moment,  sabering  them  right  and 


BATTLE  OF  RESACA  DE  LA  PALMA 

hose  of  his  men  whose  horses  could  do  a  like  feat,  and  was  among  th« 
d  left.     General  La  Vega  and  a  hundred  of  his  men  were  made 
prisoners 


d  borne  back  to  the  American  lines. 


GREAT  AMERICAN  HISTORIANS  AND  BIOGRAPHERS 


ANNEXATION  OF  TEXAS-  WAR  WITH  MEXICO  421 

he  was  absolutely  fearless,  and  invariably  rode  a  favourite  white  horse,  alto- 
gether regardless  of  attracting  the  enemy's  attention.  The  old  hero  never 
wavered  when  he  heard  of  the  approach  of  the  dreaded  Santa  Anna.  He 
quietly  went  to  work,  and,  having  strongly  garrisoned  Saltillo,  placed  his 
men  so  as  to  seize  all  the  advantages  the  position  offered. 

Imagine  a  narrow  valley  between  two  mountain  ranges.  On  the  west 
side  of  the  road  a  series  of  gullies  or  ravines,  on  the  east  the  sheer  sides  of 
precipitous  mountains.  Such  was  the  Pass  of  Angostura, 


which,   at   one  spot  three   miles   from   Buena  Vista,  could  be  Ol 


held  as  easily  as  Horatius  kept  the  bridge  in  the  brave  days 
of  old  ;  and  here  was  placed  Captain  Washington's  battery  of  three  guns,  with 
two  companies  as  a  guard.  Up  the  mountain  to  the  eastward  the  rest  of  the 
American  army  was  ranged,  more  especially  on  a  plateau  so  high  as  to  com- 
mand all  the  ground  east  and  west,  and  only  approachable  from  the  south 
or  north  by  intricate  windings  formed  by  ledges  of  rock. 

At  nine  o'clock  on  the  morning  of  the  22d  of  February  the  advance 
pickets  espied  the  Mexican  van,  and  General  Wool  sent  in  hot  haste  to 
Taylor,  who  was  at  Saltillo.  The  Mexican  army  dragged  its  slow  length 
along,  its  resplendent  uniforms  shining  in  the  sun.  With  much  the  same 
feelings  as  Macbeth  saw  Birnam  Wood  approach,  must  many  of  the  Amer- 
icans have  watched  the  coming  of  this  forest  of  steel.  Two  hours  after  the 
pickets  had  announced  the  van,  a  Mexican  officer  came  forward  with  a  white 
flag.  He  bore  the  imperious  message  from  the  dictator  the  opening  words 
of  which  have  already  been  quoted. 

The  fight  on  that  day  was  confined  to  an  exchange  of  artillery  shots, 
and  at  nightfall  Taylor  returned  to  Saltillo,  seeing  that  the  affair  was  over 
for  the  time.  But  during  the  night  the  Mexicans  made  a  movement  that 
put  the  small  American  force  in  serious  peril.  While  the  Americans 
bivouacked  without  fires  in  the  bitter  chill  of  the  mountain  height,  some 
1,500  Mexicans  gained  the  summit  under  cover  of  the  darkness,  and  when 
the  mists  of  morning  rose  the  Americans,  to  their  surprise  and  chagrin,  saw 
everywhere  before  them  the  batallions  of  the  enemy. 

Up  the  pass  soon  came  heavy  force,  in  the  face  of  Captain  Washing- 
ton's battery,  while  a  rush,  that  seemed  as  if  it  must  be  irresistable,  was 
made  for  the   plateau.     The   fight   here  was  desperate.     The   soldiers    of 
neither  army  had  had  any  experience  in  battle,  and  an  Indiana   The  Mexican 
regiment   retreated  at  the  command  of  its  colonel,  and  could      Cavalry 
not  be  rallied   again.     This  imperilled  the  safety  of  all  who          arge 
remained,  many  of  them  being  killed,  while  only  the  active  service  of  the 
artillery  prevented   the    loss    of    the    plateau,    upon    whose    safe    keeping 


422  ANNEXATION  OF  TEXAS— WAR  WITH  MEXICO 

depended  the  issue  of  the  day.  So  fierce  was  the  Mexican  charge  that 
every  cannonier  of  the  advanced  battery  fell  beside  his  gun,  and  Captain 
O'Brien  was  obliged  to  fall  back  in  haste  losing  his  guns.  He  replaced  them  by 
two  six  pounders,  borrowed  from  Captain  Washington,  who  had  repulsed  the 
attack  in  the  pass.  Meanwhile,  more  American  artillery  on  O'Brien's  left 
was  driving  the  Mexicans  back  upon  the  cavalry  opposed  to  the  gallant 
captain.  The  Mexican  lancers  charged  the  Illinois  soldiers — "the  very 
earth  did  shake."  It  was  not  until  the  lancers  were  within  a  few  yards  of 
O'Brien  that  he  opened  fire.  This  gave  the  Mexicans  pause,  but  with  cries 
of  "  God  and  Liberty  !"  on  they  came.  Once  more  the  deadly  cannonade — 
another  pause.  O'Brien  determined  to  stand  his  ground  until' 
the  hoofs  of  the  enemy's  horses  were  upon  him,  but  the 
recruits  with  him,  only  few  of  whom  had  escaped  from  being 
shot  down,  had  no  stomach  left  for  fighting.  The  intrepid  captain  again  lost 
his  pieces,  but  he  had  saved  the  day. 

At  this  point  the  leisurely  General  Taylor,  on  his  white  horse,  so  easily 
recognisable,  came  from  Saltillo  to  the  field  of  battle.  North  of  the  chief 
plateau  was  another,  where  the  Mississippi  Rifles,  under  Colonel  Davis — 
who,  although  early  wounded,  kept  his  horse  all  day — stood  at  bay,  formed 
into  a  V-shape  with  the  opening  towards  the  enemy.  Nothing  loth,  the 
Mexican  lancers  rushed  on,  and  the  riflemen  did  not  fire  until  they  were 
able  to  recognize  the  features  of  their  foe  and  to  take  deliberate  aim  at  their 
eyes.  This  coolness  was  too  great  to  be  combated. 

For  hours  the  active  and  deadly  struggle  went  on.  The  Mexican 
lancers  made  an  assault  on  Buena  Vista,  where  were  the  American  baggage 
and  supply  train,  but  were  driven  off  after  a  sharp  contest.  At  a  later  hour 
of  the  day  the  brunt  of  the  fight  was  being  borne  by  the  Illinois  regiment 
and  the  Second  Kentucky  Cavalry,  who  were  in  serious  straits  when  Taylor 
sent  to  their  relief  a  light  battery  under  Captain  Bragg.  It  was  quickly  in 
peril.  The  Mexicans  captured  the  foremost  guns  and  repulsed  the  infantry 
support. 

Bragg  appealed  for  fresh  help.  "  I  have  no  reinforcements  to  give 
you,"  "  Rough  and  Ready  "  is  reported  to  have  replied,  "  but  Major  Bliss 
and  I  will  support  you  "  ;  and  the  brave  old  man  spurred  his  horse  to  the 

spot   beside    the    cannon.      Unheeding,   the  Mexican    cavalry 

The  Work  of  v  ,      ,  JUj  u    •        r  •  <^-j 

Captain  Bragg  r°de  forward — the  day  was  now  theirs   for  a  certainty,  '  God 

and  Liberty  !"  their  proud  cry  again  rang  out.  Their  horses 
galloped  so  near  to  Captain  Bragg's  coign  of  vantage  that  their  riders  had 
no  time  in  which  to  pull  them  up  before  the  battery  opened  fire  with  canis- 
ter. As  the  smoke  cleared,  the  little  group  of  Americans  saw  the  terrible 


ANNEXATION  OF  TEXAS— WAR  WITH  MEXICO  423 

work  they  had  done  in  the  gaps  in  the  enemy's  ranks,  and  heard  it  in  the 
screams  of  men  and  horses  in  agony.  They  reloaded  with  grape.  The 
Mexicans  pressed  on  ;  their  courage  at  the  cannon's  mouth  was  truly  mar- 
velous. This  second  shower  of  lead  did  equal,  if  not  greater,  mischief. 
A  third  discharge  completely  routed  the  enemy,  who,  being  human,  fled  in 
headlong  haste  over  the  wounded  and  the  dead — no  matter  where.  The 
American  infantry  pursued  the  flying  foe,  with  foolish  rashness,  beyond  safe 
limits.  The  Mexicans,  all  on  an  instant,  turned  about,  the  hounds  became 
the  hare,  and  had  it  not  been  for  Washington's  cannon  checking  the  Mexi- 
can cavalry,  who  had  had  enough  grape  and  canister  for  one  day,  they 
would  have  been  annihilated. 

At  six  o'clock,  after  ten  hours  of  fierce  and  uninterrupted  fighting,  the 
battle  came  to  an  end,  both  armies  occupying  the  same  positions  as  in  the 
morning,  though  each  had  lost  heavily  during  the  day.  General  Taylor 
expected  the  battle  to  be  renewed  in  the  morning,  but  with  daylight  came 
the  welcome  news  that  the  enemy  had  disappeared.  The  five  thousand  had 
held  their  own  against  four  times  their  number,  and  the  victory  that  was  to 
make  General  Taylor  President  of  the  United  States  had  been  won. 

Meanwhile  General  Scott,  the  hero  of  Chippewa  and  Lundy's  Lane  in 
1814,  had  sailed  down  the  Gulf  with  a  considerable  force  to  the  seaport  city 
of  Vera  Cruz,  which  was  taken  after  a  brief  bombardment.  From  here 
an  overland  march  of  two  hundred  miles  was  made  to  the  Scott's  Advance 
Mexican  capital.  Scott  reached  the  vicinity  of  the  City  of  Against  the 
Mexico  with  a  force  11,000  strong,  and  found  its  approaches  CityofHexico 
strongly  fortified  and  guarded  by  30,000  men.  Yet  he  pushed  on  almost 
unchecked.  Victories  were  won  at  Contreras  and  Churubusco,  the  defences 
surrounding  the  city  were  taken,  and  on  September  i3th  the  most  formid- 
able of  them  all,  the  strong  hill  fortress  of  Chapultepec,  was  carried  by 
storm,  the  American  troops  charging  up  a  steep  hill  in  face  of  a  severe  fire 
and  driving  the  garrison  in  dismay  from  their  guns. 

This  ended  the  war  in  that  quarter.     The  next  day  the  star  and  stripes 
waved  over  the  famous  "  Halls  of  the  Montezumas"  and  the  city  was  ours. 
On  February  2,  1848,  a  treaty  of  peace  was  signed  at  the  village  of  Guada 
lupe  Hidalgo,  whose  terms  gave  the  United  States  an  accession  of  territory 
that  was  destined  to  prove  of  extraordinary  value. 

New  Mexico,  a  portion  of  this  territory,  had  been  invaded  and  occupied 
by  General  Kearny,  who  had  taken  Santa  Fe  after  a  thousand  miles'  march 
overland.  Before  the  fleet  sent  to  California  could  reach  there,  Captain 
John  C.  Fremont,  in  charge  of  a  surveying  party  in  Oregon,  had  invaded 
that  country.  He  did  not  know  that  war  had  been  declared,  his  purpose 


424  ANNEXATION  OP  TEXAS— WAR  WITH  MEXICO 

being  to  protect  the  American  settlers,  whom  the  Mexicans  threatened  to 
expel.      Fremont  was  one  of  the  daring  pioneers  who  made 

N«i/c^iifornia  *^e*r  wa^  over  t^le  mountams  and  plains  of  the  West  in  the 
days  when  Indian  hostility  and  the  difficulties  raised  by  nature 
made  this  a  very  arduous  and  perilous  enterprise.  Several  conflicts  with 
the  Mexicans,  in  which  he  was  aided  by  the  fleet,  and  later  by  General 
Kearny,  who  had  crossed  the  wild  interior  from  Santa  Fe,  gave  Fremont 
control  of  that  great  country,  which  was  destined  almost  to  double  the 
wealth  of  the  United  States.  Whatever  he  thought  of  the  ethics  of  the 
acquisition  of  Texas  and  the  Mexican  war,  their  economical  advantages  to 
the  United  States  have  been  enormous,  and  the  whole  world  has  been  en« 
riched  by  the  product  of  California's  golden  sands  and  fertile  fields. 


CHAPTER  XXIX. 

The  Negro  in  America  and  the  Slavery  Conflict. 

WHEN,  over  two  hundred  and  eighty  years  ago  (it  is  in  doubt 
whether  the  correct  date  is  1619  or  1620)  a  few  wretched  negroes, 
some  say  fourteen,  some  say  twenty,  were  bartered  for  provisions 
by  the  crew  of  a  Dutch  man-of-war,  then  lying  off  the  Virginia  coast,  it 
would  have  seemed  incredible  that  in  1900  the  negro  population  of  the 
Southern  States  alone  should  reach  very  nearly  eight  million  Beginning  of 
souls.  African  negroes  had,  indeed,  been  sold  into  slavery  the  slave 
among  many  nations  for  perhaps  three  thousand  years  ;  but  in  its  Trafflc 
earlier  periods  slavery  was  rather  the  outcome  of  war  than  the  deliberate 
subject  of  trade,  and  white  captives  no  less  than  black  were  ruthlessly  thrown 
into  servitude.  It  has  been  estimated  that  in  historical  times  some  forty 
million  Africans  have  been  enslaved.  The  Spaniards  found  the  Indian  an 
intractable  slave,  and  for  the  arduous  labors  of  colonization  soon  began  to 
make  use  of  negro  slaves,  importing  them  in  great  numbers  and  declaring 
that  one  negro  was  worth,  as  a  human  beast  of  burden,  four  Indians.  Soon 
the  English  adventurers  took  up  the  traffic.  It  is  to  Sir  John  Hawkins,  the 
ardent  discoverer,  that  the  English-speaking  peoples  owe  their  participation 
in  the  slave  trade.  He  has  put  it  on  record,  as  the  result  of  one  of  his  famous 
voyages,  that  he  found  "that  negroes  were  very  good  merchandise  in  Hisp- 
aniola  and  might  easily  be  had  on  the  coast  of  Guinea."  For  his  early 
adventures  of  this  kind  he  was  roundly  taken  to  task  by  Queen  Elizabeth. 

But  tradition  says  that  he  boldly  faced  her  with  the  argument 
i  i         A  r  •  •    f     •  111  Increase  in 

that   the   Africans  were  an  inferior  race,  and  ended  by  con-      Numbers 

vincing  the  Virgin  Queen  that  the  slave  trade  was  not  merely 
a  lucrative  but  a  perfectly  philanthropic  undertaking.  Certain  it  is  that  she 
acquiesced  in  future  slave  trading,  while  her  successors  Charles  II.  and  James 
II.  chartered  four  slave  trading  companies  and  received  a  share  in  their 
profits.  It  is  noteworthy  that  both  Great  Britain  and  the  United  States 
recognized  the  horrors  of  the  slave  trade  as  regards  the  seizing  and  trans- 
portation from  Africa  of  the  unhappy  negroes,  long  before  they  could  bring 
themselves  to  deal  with  the  problem  of  slavery  as  a  domestic  institution.  Of 
those  horrors  nothing  can  be  said  in  exaggeration. 

34  425 


426         THE  NEGRO  IN  AMERICA  AND  THE  SLAVERY  CONFLICT 

The  institution  of  slavery,  introduced  as  we  have  seen  into  Virginia, 
grew  at  first  very  slowly.  Twenty-five  years  after  the  first  slaves  were 
landed  the  negro  population  of  the  colony  was  only  three  hundred.  But 
the  conditions  of  agriculture  and  of  climate  were  such  that,  once  slavery 
Colonial  Laws  obtained  a  fair  start,  it  spread  with  continually  increasing 
About  rapidity.  We  find  the  Colonial  Assembly  passing  one  after 

Slavery  another  a  series  of  laws  defining  the  condition  of  the  negro 

slave  more  and  more  clearly,  and  more  and  more  pitilessly.  Thus,  a  dis- 
tinction was  soon  made  between  them  and  Indians  held  in  servitude.  It 
was  enacted  that  "  all  servants  not  being  Christians  imported  into  this 
colony  by  shipping  shall  be  slaves  for  their  lives ;  but  what  shall  come  by 
land  shall  serve,  if  boyes  or  girles,  until  thirty  years  of  age  ;  if  men  or 
women,  twelve  years  and  no  longer."  And  before  the  end  of  the  century 
a  long  series  of  laws  so  encompassed  the  negro  with  limitations  and  pro- 
hibitions, that  he  almost  ceased  to  have  any  criminal  or  civil  rights  and  be- 
came a  mere  personal  chattel. 

In  some  of  the  northern  colonies  slavery  seemed  to  take  root  as  readily 
and  to  flourish  as  rapidly  as  in  the  South.  It  was  only  after  a  considerable 
time  that  social  and  commercial  conditions  arose  which  led  to  its  gradual 
Slavery  in  abandonment.  In  New  York  a  mild  type  of  negro  slavery 

Early  was  introduced  by  the  Dutch.      The  relation  of  master  and 

New  York  s]ave  seems  in  the  period  of  the  Dutch  rule  to  have  been  free 
from  great  severity  or  cruelty.  After  the  seizure  of  the  government  by  the 
English,  however,  the  institution  was  officially  recognized  and  even  en- 
couraged. The  slave  trade  grew  in  magnitude  ;  and  here  again  we  find  a 
series  of  oppressive  laws  forbidding  meetings  of  negroes,  laying  down  penalties 
for  concealing  slaves,  and  the  like.  When  the  Revolution  broke  out  there 
were  not  less  than  fifteen  thousand  slaves  in  New  York —  a  number  greatly 
in  excess  of  that  held  by  any  other  northern  colony. 

Massachusetts,  the  home  in  later  days  of  so  many  of  the  most  eloquent 
abolition  agitators,  was  from  the  very  first,  until  after  the  war  with  Great 
Britain  was  well  under  way,  a  stronghold  of  slavery.  The  records  of  1633 
tell  of  the  fright  of  Indians  who  saw  a  "  Blackamoor"  in  a  treetop,  whom 
they  took  for  the  devil  in  person,  but  who  turned  out  to  be  an  escaped 
Slavery  in  slave.  A  few  years  later  the  authorities  of  the  colony  orfici- 

flassachu-        ally  recognized  the  institution.      To  quote  Chief  Justice   Par- 
sons, "  Slavery  was  introduced  into  Massachusetts  soon  after 
its  first  settlement,  and  was  tolerated  until  the  ratification  of  the  present 
constitution  in  1780."     The  curious  may  find  in  ancient   Boston  newspapers 
no  lack  of  such  advertisements  as  that,  in    1728,  of  the  sale  of  "two  very 


THE  NEGRO  IN  AMERICA  AND  THE  SLAVERY  CONFLICT        427 

likely  negro  girls,"  and  of  "  A  likely  negro  woman  of  about  nineteen  years 
and  a  child  about  seven  months  of  age,  to  be  sold  together  or  apart."  A 
Tory  writer  before  the  outbreak  of  the  Revolution  sneers  at  the  Bostonians 
for  their  talk  about  freedom  when  they  possessed  two  thousand  negro  slaves. 
Even  Peter  Faneuil,  who  built  the  famous  "  Cradle  of  Liberty,"  was  him- 
self, at  that  very  time,  actively  engaged  in  the  slave  trade.  There  is  some 
truth  in  the  once  common  taunt  of  the  pro-slavery  orators  that  the  North 
imported  slaves,  the  South  only  bought  them. 

As  with  New  York  and  Massachusetts,  so  with  the  other  colonies. 
Either  slavery  was  introduced  by  greedy  speculators  from  abroad  or  it 
spread  easily  from  adjoining  colonies.  In  1776  the  slave  Negro  Soldiers 
population  of  the  thirteen  colonies  was  almost  exactly  half  a  in  the  Revolu- 
million,  nine-tenths  of  whom  were  to  be  found  in  the  southern  tion 
states.  In  the  War  of  the  Revolution  the  question  o/  arming  the  negroes 
raised  bitter  opposition.  In  the  end  a  comparatively  few  were  enrolled, 
and  it  is  admitted  that  they  served  faithfully  and  with  courage.  Rhode 
Island  even  formed  a  regiment  of  blacks,  and  at  the  siege  of  Newport  and 
afterwards  at  Point's  Bridge,  New  York,  this  body  of  soldiers  fought  not 
only  without  reproach  but  with  positive  heroism. 

From  the  day  when  the  Declaration  of  Independence  asserted  "That 
all  men  are  created  equal,  that  they  are  endowed  by  their  Creator  with 
certain  inalienable  rights  ;  that  among  these  are  life,  liberty  and  the  pursuit 
of  happiness,"  the  peoples  of  the  new,  self-governing  states  could  not  but 
have  seen  that  with  them  lay  the  responsibility.  There  is  ample  evidence 
that  the  fixing  of  the  popular  mind  on  liberty  as  an  ideal  bore  results 
immediately  in  arousing  anti-slavery  sentiment.  Such  sentiment  existed 
in  the  South  as  well  as  in  the  North.  Even  North  Carolina  in  1786  de- 
clared the  slave  trade  of  "evil  consequences  and  highly  impolitic."  All  the 
northern  states  abolished  slavery,  beginning  with  Vermont  slavery  Abol- 
in  1777,  and  ending  with  New  Jersey  in  1804.  It  should  be  ished  in  the 
added,  however,  that  many  of  the  northern  slaves  were  not 
freed,  but  sold  to  the  South.  The  agricultural  and  commercial  conditions 
in  the  North  were  such  as  to  make  slave  labor  less  and  less  profitable,  while 
in  the  South  the  social  order  of  things,  agricultural  conditions,  and  climate 
were  gradually  making  it  seemingly  indispensable. 

When  the  Constitutional  debates  began  the  trend  of  opinion  seemed 
strongly  against  slavery.  Many  delegates  thought  that  the  evil  would  die 
out  of  itself.  One  thought  the  abolition  of  slavery  already  rapidly  going 
on  and  soon  to  be  completed.  Another  asserted  that  "  slavery  in  time  will 
not  be  a  speck  in  our  country."  Mr.  Jefferson,  on  the  other  hand,  in  view 


428         THE  NEGRO  IN  AMERICA  AND  THE  SLAVER?  CONFLICT 

of  the  retention  of  slavery,  declared  roundly  that  he  trembled  for  his  coun- 
try when  he  remembered  that  God  was  just.  And  John  Adams  urged  again 
and  again  that  "  every  measure  of  prudence  ought  to  be  assumed  for  the 
eventual  total  extirpation  of  slavery  from  the  United  States."  The  obstinate 
states  in  the  convention  were  South  Carolina  and  Georgia.  Their  delegates 
declared  that  their  states  would  absolutely  refuse  ratification  to  the  Con- 
stitution unless  slavery  were  recognized.  The  compromise  sections  finally 
agreed  upon,  avoided  the  use  of  the  words  slave  and  slavery,  but  clearly 
recognized  the  institution,  and  even  gave  the  slave  states  the  advantage  of 
sending  representatives  to  Congress  on  a  basis  of  population  determined  by 
adding  to  the  whole  number  of  free  persons  "  three-fifths  of  all  other  per- 
sons." The  other  persons  referred  to  were,  it  is  almost  needless  to  add, 
negro  slaves. 

The  entire  dealing  with  the  question  of  slavery,  at  the  framing  of  the 
Constitution,  was  a  series  of  compromises.  This  is  seen  again  in  the  failure 
definitely  to  forbid  the  slave  trade  from  abroad.  Some  of  the  southern 
Compromises  states  had  absolutely  declined  to  listen  to  any  proposition 
in  the  Con-  which  would  restrict  their  freedom  of  action  in  this  matter, 
and  they  were  yielded  to  so  far  that  Congress  was  forbidden 
to  make  the  traffic  unlawful  before  the  year  1808.  As  that  time  approached, 
President  Jefferson  urged  Congress  to  withdraw  the  country  from  all  "fur- 
ther participation  in  those  violations  of  human  rights  which  have  so  long 
been  continued  on  the  unoffending  inhabitants  of  Africa."  Such  an  act 
was  at  once  adopted,  and  by  it  heavy  fines  were  imposed  on  all  persons 
fitting  out  vessels  for  the  slave  trade  and  also  upon  all  actually  engaged  in 
the  trade,  while  vessels  so  employed  became  absolutely  forfeited.  Twelve 
years  later  another  act  was  passed  declaring  the. importation  of  slaves  to  be 
actual  piracy.  The  latter  law,  however,  was  of  little  practical  value,  as  it 
was  not  until  1861  that  a  conviction  was  obtained  under  it.  Then,  at  last, 
when  the  whole  slave  question  was  about  to  be  settled  forever,  a  ship- 
master was  convicted  and  hanged  for  piracy  in  New  York  for  the  crime  of 
being  engaged  in  the  slave  trade.  In  despite  of  all  laws,  however,  the  trade 
in  slaves  was  continued  secretly,  and  the  profits  were  so  enormous  that  the 
risks  did  not  prevent  continual  attempts  to  smuggle  slaves  into  the  territory 
of  the  United  States. 

The  first  quarter  of  a  century  of  our  history,  after  the  adoption  of  the 
Constitution,  was  marked  by  comparative  quietude  in  regard  to  the  future 
of  slavery.  In  the  North,  as  we  have  seen,  the  institution  died  a  natural 
death,  but  there  was  no  disposition  evinced  in  the  northern  states  to  inter- 
fere with  it  in  the  South.  The  first  great  battle  took  place  in  1820  over 


THE  NEGRO  IN  AMERICA  AND  THE  SLAVERY  CONFLICT        429 

the  so-called  Missouri  compromise.      Now,  for  the  first   time,  the   country 
was  divided,  sectionally  and  in  a  strictly  political  way,  upon  issues  which  in- 
volved the  future  policy  of  the  United  States  as  to  the  extension  or  restric- 
tion   of   slave    territory.     State  after  state  had  been  admitted 
into  the  Union,  but  there  had  been  an  alteration  of  slave  and 
free  states,  so  that  the  political  balance  was  not  disturbed.     Thus  Ohio  was 
balanced  by  Lousiana,  Indiana  by  Mississippi,  Illinois  by  Alabama.     Of  th^ 
twenty-two  states  admitted  before  1820,  eleven  were  slave  and  eleven  fr^f 
states. 

Immediately  after  the  admission  of  Alabama,  of  course  as  a  slave- 
holding  state,  Maine  and  Missouri  applied  for  admission.  The  admission 
of  Maine  alone  would  have  given  a  preponderance  to  the  free  states,  and 
for  this  reason  it  was  strongly  contended  by  southern  members  that  Mis- 
souri should  be  admitted  as  a  slave  state.  But  the  sentiment  of  opposition 
to  the  extension  of  slavery  was  growing  rapidly  in  the  North,  and  many 
members  from  that  section  opposed  this  proposition.  They  had  believed 
that  the  ordinance  of  1787,  adopted  simultaneously  with  the  Constitution, 
and  which  forbade  slavery  to  be  established  in  the  territory  northwest  of 
the  Ohio,  had  settled  this  question  definitely  ;  but  this  ordinance  did  not 
apply  to  territory  west  of  the  Mississippi,  so  that  the  question  really 
remained  open.  A  fierce  debate  was  waged  through  two  sessions  of  Con- 
gress, and  in  the  end  it  was  agreed  to  permit  the  introduction  of  slavery 
into  Missouri,  but  to  prohibit  it  forever  in  all  future  states 
lying  north  of  the  parallel  of  36  degrees  30  minutes,  the 
southern  boundary  of  Missouri.  This  was  a  compromise, 
satisfactory  only  because  it  seemed  to  dispose  of  the  question  of  slavery 
in  the  territories  once  and  forever.  It  was  carried  mainly  by  the  great 
personal  influence  of  Henry  Clay.  It  did,  indeed,  dispose  of  slavery  as  a 
matter  of  national  legislative  discussion  for  thirty  years. 

But  this  interval  was  distinctively  a  period  of  popular  agitation.  Anti- 
slavery  sentiment  of  a  mild  type  had  long  existed.  The  Quakers  had, 
since  revolutionary  times,  held  anti-slavery  doctrines,  had  released  their 
own  servants  from  bondage,  and  had  disfellowshiped  members  who  refused 
to  concur  in  the  sacrifice.  The  very  last  public  act  of  Benjamin  Franklin 
was  the  framing  of  a  memorial  to  Congress  in  which  he  deprecated  the. 
existence  of  slavery  in  a  free  country.  In  New  York  the  The  Anti- 
Manumission  society  had  been  founded  in  1785,  with  John  slavery  Senti- 
Jay  and  Alexander  Hamilton,  in  turn,  as  its  presidents.  ment 
But  this  early  -writing  and  speaking  were  directed  against  slavery  in  a 
general  way,  and  with  no  tone  of  aggression.  Gradual  emancipation  and 


430         THE  NEGRO  IN  AMERICA  AND  THE  SLAVERY  CONFLICT 

colonization  were  the  only  remedies  suggested.  It  was  with  the  founding 
of  the  Liberator  by  William  Lloyd  Garrison,  in  1831,  that  the  era  of 
aggressive  abolitionism  began.  Garrison  and  his  society  maintained  that 
slavery  was  a  sin  against  God  and  man  ;  that  immediate  emancipation  was 
a  duty  ;  that  slave  owners  had  no  claim  to  compensation  ;  that  all  laws  up- 
holding slavery  were,  before  God,  null  and  void.  Garrison  exclaimed  :  "  I 
am  in  earnest.  I  will  not  equivocate — I  will  not  excuse — I  will  not  retreat 
a  single  inch.  And  I  will  be  heard."  His  paper  bore  conspicuously  the 
motto  "  No  union  with  slaveholders." 

The  Abolitionists  were,  in  numbers,  a  feeble  band  ;  as  a  party  they 
lever  acquired  strength,  nor  were  their  tenets  adopted  strictly  by  any 
political  party ;  but  they  served  the  purpose  of  arousing  the  conscience  of 
the  nation.  They  were  abused,  vilified,  mobbed,  all  but  killed.  Garrison 
was  dragged  through  the  streets  of  Boston  with  a  rope  around  his  neck — 
through  those  very  streets  which,  in  1854,  had  their  shops  closed  and  hung 
in  black,  with  flags  Union  down  and  a  huge  coffin  suspended  in  mid-air,  on 
the  day  when  the  fugitive  slave,  Anthony  Burns,  was  marched  through 
them  on  his  way  back  to  his  master,  under  a  guard  of  nearly  two  thousand 
men.  Mr.  Garrison's  society  soon  took  the  stand  that  the  union  of  states 
with  slavery  retained  was  "an  agreement  with  hell  and  a  covenant  with 
death,"  and  openly  advocated  secession  of  the  non-slaveholding  states.  On 
this  issue  the  Abolitionists  split  into  two  branches,  and  those  who  threw  off 
Leading  Oppo-  Garrison's  lead  maintained  that  there  was  power  enough 
nentsof  under  the  Constitution  to  do  away  with  slavery.  To  the 

fierce  invective  and  constant  agitation  of  Garrison  were,  in 
time,  added  the  splendid  oratory  of  Wendell  Phillips,  the  economic  argu- 
ments of  Horace  Greeley,  the  wise  statesmanship  of  Charles  Sumner,  the 
fervid  writings  of  Channing  and  Emerson,  and  the  noble  poetry  of  Whit- 
her. All  these  and  others,  in  varied  ways  and  from  different  points  of  view, 
joined  in  bringing  the  public  opinion  of  the  North  to  the  view  that  the 
permanent  existence  of  slavery  was  incompatible  with  that  of  a  free 
republic. 

In  the  South,  meanwhile,  the  institution  was  intrenching  itself  more  and 
more  firmly.  The  invention  of  the  cotton  gin  and  the  beginning  of  the 
reign  of  cotton  as  king  made  the  great  plantation  system  a  seeming  com- 
mercial necessity.  From  the  deprecatory  and  half  apologetic  utterances  of 
early  southern  statesmen,  we  come  to  Mr.  Calhoun's  declaration  that  slavery 
*'  now  preserves  in  quiet  and  security  more  than  six  and  a  half  million  human 
beings,  and  that  it  could  not  be  destroyed  without  destroying  the  peace  and 
prosperity  of  nearly  half  the  states  in  the  Union."  The  Abolitionists  were 


THE  NEGRO  IN  AMERICA  AND  THE  SLAVERY  CONFLICT        431 

regarded  in  the    South    with  the   bitterest    hatred.     Attempts    were    even 
made  to  compel  the    northern  states  to  silence  the  anti-slavery  orators,  to 
prohibit  the  circulation   through  the   mail  of  anti-slavery  speeches,  and  to 
refuse  a  hearing  in  Congress  to  anti-slavery  petitions.     The    southern 
influence  of  the  South  was  still  dominant  in  the  North.    Though      Hatred  of 
the  feeling  against   slavery   spread,   there  co-existed  with   it      Abo1 
the  belief  that  an  open  quarrel  with  the  South  meant  commercial  ruin  ;  and 
the  anti-slavery  sentiment  was  also  neutralized  by  the  nobler  feeling  that  the 
Union  must  be  preserved  at  all  hazards,  and  that  there  was  no  constitutional 
mode  of  interfering  with  the  slave  system.     The  annexation  of  Texas  was 
a  distinct  gain  to  the   slave   power,  and  the  Mexican  war  was   undertaken, 
said  John  Quincy  Adams,  in   order  that   "the  slave-holding  power  in  the 
government  shall  be  secured  and  riveted." 

The  actual  condition  of  the  negro  over  whom  such  a  strife  was  being 
waged  differed  materially  in  different  parts  of  the  South,  and,  under  masters 
of  different  character,  in  the  same  locality.  It  had  its  side  of  cruelty, 
oppression  and  atrocity  ;  it  had  also  its  side  of  kindness  on  the  part  of 
master  and  of  devotion  on  the  part  of  slave.  Its  dark  side  has  been  made 
familiar  to  readers  by  such  books  as  "  Uncle  Tom's  Cabin,"  Dickens' 
"American  Notes,"  and  Edmund  Kirk's  "  Among  the  Pines;" 

...  -11          i  i  -11-         i    •        T  •         The  Literature 

its   brighter  side  has  been  charmingly  depicted  in  the  stories      of  Siavery 

of  Thomas  Nelson    Page,  Joel   Chandler  Harris,  and    Harry 
Edwards.     On  the  great  cotton  plantations  of  Mississippi  and  Alabama  the 
slave  was  often  overtaxed  and  harshly  treated  ;  in  the  domestic  life  of  Vir- 
ginia, on   the  other  hand,  he   was  as  a   rule  most  kindly  used,  and   often  a 
relation  of  deep  affection  sprang  up  between  him  and  his  master. 

With  this  state  of  public  feeling  North  and  South,  it  was  with  increased 
bitterness  and  developed  sectionalism  that  the  subject  of  slavery  in  new 
states  was  again  debated  in  the  Congress  of  1850.  The  Liberty  party, 
which  held  that  slavery  might  be  abolished  under  the  Constitution,  had 
been  merged  in  the  Free  Soil  party,  whose  cardinal  principle  was,  "  To 
secure  free  soil  to  a  free  people,"  and,  while  not  interfering  with  slavery  in 
existing  states,  to  insist  on  its  exclusion  from  territory  so  far  free.  The  pro- 
posed admission  of  California  was  not  affected  by  the  Missouri  Compromise. 
Its  status  as  a  future  free  or  slave  state  was  the  turning  point  of  the  famous 
debates  in  the  Senate  of  1850,  in  which  Webster,  Calhoun,  Douglas  and 
Seward  won  fame — debates  which  have  never  been  equaled  in  our  history 
for  eloquence  and  acerbity.  It  was  in  the  course  of  these  debates  that  Mr. 
Seward,  while  denying  that  the  Constitution  recognized  property  in  man, 
struck  out  his  famous  dictum,  "  There  is  a  higher  law  than  the  Constitu- 


432         THE  NEGRO  IN  AMERICA  AND  THE  SLAVERY  CONFLICT 

tion."     The  end  reached  was   a  compromise  which    allowed  California   to 
settle  for  itself  the  question  of  slavery,  forbade  the  slave  trade  in  the  Dis- 
trict of  Columbia,  but  enacted  a  strict  fugitive  slave  law.     To 
The  Fugitive  '       .  .  .  .... 

Slave  Law  and  the  Abolitionists  this    fugitive  slave  law,  sustained  in  its  most 

Underground  extreme  measures  by  the  courts  in  the  famous — or  as  they 
called  it,  infamous — Dred  Scott  case,  was  as  fuel  to  fire. 
They  defied  it  in  every  possible  way.  The  "  Underground  Railway"  was  the 
outcome  of  this  defiance.  By  it  a  chain  of  secret  stations  was  established, 
from  one  to  the  other  of  which  the  slave  was  guided  at  night  until  at  last 
he  reached  the  Canada  border.  The  most  used  of  these  routes  in  the  East 
was  from  Baltimore  to  New  York,  thence  north  through  New  England  ; 
that  most  employed  in  the  West  was  from  Cincinnati  to  Detroit.  It  has 
been  estimated  that  not  fewer  than  thirty  thousand  slaves  were  thus  assisted 
to  freedom. 

Soon  the  struggle  was  changed  to  another  part  of  the  western  territory, 
which  was  now  growing  so  rapidly  as  to  demand  the  formation  of  new  states. 
The  Kansas-Nebraska  Bill  introduced  by  Douglas  was  in  effect  the  repeal 
of  the  Missouri  Compromise,  in  that  it  left  the  question  as  to  whether  slavery 
should  be  carried  into  the  new  territories  to  the  decision  of  the  settlers 
themselves.  As  a  consequence  immigration  was  directed  by  both  the  anti- 
slavery  and  the  pro-slavery  parties  to  Kansas,  each  determined  on  obtain- 
ing a  majority  enabling  it  to  control  the  proposed  State  Constitution.  Then 
began  a  series  of  acts  of  violence  which  almost  amounted  to  civil  war. 
"  Bleeding  Kansas  "  became  a  phrase  in  almost  every  one's  mouth.  Border 
ruffians  swaggered  at  the  polls  and  attempted  to  drive  out  the 
ass^stec^  emigrants  sent  to  Kansas  by  the  Abolition  societies. 
The  result  of  the  election  of  the  Legislature  on  its  face  made 
Kansas  a  slave  state,  but  a  great  part  of  the  people  refused  to  accept  this 
result ;  and  a  convention  was  held  at  Topeka  which  resolved  that  Kansas 
should  be  free  even  if  the  laws  formed  by  the  Legislature  should  have  to  be 
"  resisted  to  a  bloody  issue." 

Prominent  among  the  armed  supporters  of  free  state  ideas  in  Kansas 

was  Captain  John  Brown,  a  man  whose  watchword  was  at  all  times  action. 

"  Talk,"  he  said,  "  is   a   national   institution  ;  but  it   does   no  good  for  the 

John  Brown  at     slave."      He  believed  that  slavery  could  only  be  coped  with  by 

Harper's  armed  force.      His  theory  was  that  the  way  to  make  free  men 

of  slaves  was  for  the  slaves  themselves  to  resist  any  attempt 

to  coerce  them  by  their  masters.      He  was  undoubtedly  a  fanatic  in  that  he 

did  not  stop  to  measure  probabilities  or  to  take  account  of  the  written  law. 

His   attempt    at    Harper's    Ferry   was   without   reasonable    hope,   and   as 


THE  NEGRO  IN  AMERICA  AND  THE  SLAVERY  CONFLICT        433 

the  intended  beginning  of  a  great  military  movement  was  a  ridiculous 
fiasco.  To  attempt  to  make  war  upon  the  United  States  with  twenty  men 
was  utter  madness,  and  if  the  hoped  for  rising  of  the  slaves  had  taken  place 
might  have  yielded  horrible  results.  The  execution  of  John  Brown,  that 
followed,  was  the  logical  consequence  of  his  hopeless  effort. 

But  there  was  that  about  the  man  which  none  could  call  ridiculous.  Rash 
and  unreasoning  as  his  action  seemed,  he  was  still,  even  by  his  enemies, 
recognized  as  a  man  of  unswerving  conscience,  of  high  ideals,  of  deep  belief 
in  the  brotherhood  of  mankind.  His  offense  against  law  and  peace  was 
cheerfully  paid  fur  by  his  death  and  that  of  others  near  and  dear  to  him. 
Almost  no  one  at  that  day  could  be  found  to  applaud  his  plot,  but  the 
incident  had  an  effect  on  the  minds  of  the  people  altogether  out  of  propor- 
tion to  its  intrinsic  character.  More  and  more  as  time  went  on  he  became 
recognized  as  a  martyr  in  the  cause  of  human  liberty. 

Events  of  vast  importance  to  the  future  of  the  negro  in  America  now 
hurried  fast  upon  each  other's  footsteps  :  the  final  settlement  of  the  Kansas 
dispute  by  its  becoming  a  free  state  ;  the  formation  and  rapid  growth  of  the 
Republican  party  ;  the  division  of  the  Democratic  party  into  northern  and 
southern  factions;  the  election  of  Abraham  Lincoln  ;  the  secession  of  South 
Carolina,  and,  finally,  the  greatest  civil  war  the  world  has  known.  Though 
that  War  would  never  have  been  waged  were  it  not  for  the  negro,  and  though 
his  fate  was  inevitably  involved  in  its  result,  it  must  be  remembered  that  it 
was  not  undertaken  on  his  account.  Before  the  struggle  began  Mr.  Lincoln 
said  :  "  If  there  be  those  who  would  not  save  the  Union  unless  they  could 
at  the  same  time  save  slavery,  I  do  not  agree  with  them.  If  there  be  those 
who  would  not  save  the  Union  unless  they  could  at  the  same  time  destroy 
slavery,  I  do  not  agree  with  them.  My  paramount  object  is  to  save  the 
Union,  and  not  either  to  destroy  or  to  save  slavery."  And  the  northern 
press  emphasized  over  and  over  again  the  fact  that  this  was ."  a  white  man's 
war."  But  the  logic  of  events  is  inexorable.  It  seems  amazing  now  that 
Union  generals  should  have  been  puzzled  as  to  the  question  whether  they 
ought  in  duty  to  return  runaway  slaves  to  their  masters.  General  Butler 
settled  the  controversy  by  one  happy  phrase  when  he  called  the  fugitives 
"contraband  of  war."  Soon  it  was  deemed  right  to  use  these 
contrabands,  to  employ  the  new-coined  word,  as  the  South  bandofWar'~ 
was  using  the  negroes  still  in  bondage,  to  aid  in  the  non-fight- 
ing work  of  the  army — on  fortification,  team-driving,  cooking,  and  so  on. 
From  this  it  was  but  a  step,  though  a  step  not  taken  without  much  per- 
turbation, to  employ  them  as  soldiers.  At  Vicksburg,  at  Fort  Pillow,  and 
in  .many  another  battle,  the  negro  showed  beyond  dispute  that  he  could 


434         THE  NEGRO  IN  AMERICA  AND  THE  SLA  VERY  CONFLICT 

fight  for  his  liberty.  No  fiercer  or  braver  charge  was  made  in  the  war  than 
that  upon  the  parapet  of  Fort  Wagner  by  Colonel  Shaw's  gallant  colored 
regiment,  the  Massachusetts  Fifty-fourth. 

In  a  thousand  ways  the  negro  figures  in  the  history  of  the  war.  In  its 
literature  he  everywhere  stands  out  picturesquely.  He  sought  the  flag  with 
the  greatest  avidity  for  freedom  ;  flocking  in  crowds,  old  men  and  young, 
Behavior  of  women  and  children,  sometimes  with  quaint  odds  and  ends  of 
Slaves  During  personal  belongings,  often  empty-handed,  always  enthusiastic 
the  Civil  War  an(j  hopgf^  almost  always  densely  ignorant  of  the  meaning 
of  freedom  and  of  self-support.  But  while  the  negro  showed  this  avidity 
for  liberty,  his  conduct  toward  his  old  masters  was  often  generous,  and 
almost  never  did  he  seize  the  opportunity  to  inflict  vengeance  for  his  past 
wrongs.  The  eloquent  southern  orator  and  writer,  Henry  W.  Grady,  said  : 
"  History  has  no  parallel  to  the  faith  kept  by  the  negro  in  the  South  during 
the  war.  Often  five  hundred  negroes  to  a  single  white  man,  and  yet 
through  these  dusky  throngs  the  women  and  children  walked  in  safety  and 
the  unprotected  homes  rested  in  peace.  .  .  A  thousand  torches  would 
have  disbanded  every  southern  army,  but  not  one  was  lighted." 

It  was  with  conditions,  and  only  after  great  hesitation,  that  the  final 
step  of  emancipating  the  slaves  was  taken  by  President  Lincoln  in  Septem- 
ber, 1862.  The  proclamation  was  distinctly  a  war  measure,  but  its  recep- 
tion by  the  North  and  by  the  foreign  powers  and  its  immediate  effect  upon 
the  contest  were  such  that  its  expediency  was  at  once  recognized.  There- 
after there  was  possible  no  question  as  to  the  personal  freedom  of  the  negro 
The  Emancipa-  in  t^ie  United  States  of  America.  With  the  Confederacy, 
tion  Proclatna- slavery  went  down  once  and  forever.  In  the  so-called  recon- 
struction period  which  followed,  the  negro  suffered  almost  as 
much  from  the  over-zeal  of  his  political  friends  as  from  the  prejudice  of  his 
old  masters.  A  negro  writer,  who  is  a  historian  of  his  race,  has  declared 
that  the  government  gave  the  negro  the  statute  book  when  he  should  have 
had  the  spelling  book  ;  that  it  placed  him  in  the  legislature  when  he  ought 
to  have  been  in  the  school  house,  and  that,  so  to  speak,  "  the  heels  were  put 
where  the  brains  ought  to  have  been." 

A  quarter  of  a  century  and  more  has  passed  since  that  turbulent 
period  began,  and  if  the  negro  has  become  less  prominent  as  a  political 
factor,  all  the  more  for  that  reason  has  he  been  advancing  steadily  though 
slowly  in  the  requisites  of  citizenship.  He  has  learned  that  he  must,  by 
force  of  circumstances,  turn  his  attention,  for  the  time  at  least,  rather  to 
educational,  industrial  and  material  progress  than  to  political  ambition. 
And  the  record  of  his  advance  on  these  lines  is  promising  and  hopeful.  In 


THE  NEGRO  IN  AMERICA  AND  THE  SLAVERY  CONFLICT        435 

Mississippi  alone,  for  instance,  the  negroes  own  one-fifth  of  the  entire  pro- 
perty in  the  state.  In  all,  the  negroes  of  the  South  to-day  possess  two 
hundred  and  fifty  million  dollars'  worth  of  property.  Everywhere  through- 
out the  South  white  men  and  negroes  may  be  found  working  together. 

The  promise  of  the  negro  race  to-day  is  not  so  much  in  the  develop- 
ment cf  men  of  exceptional  talent,  such  as  Frederick  Douglas  or  Senator 
Bruce,  as  in  the  general  spread  of  intelligence  and  knowledge.  progress  Of  the 
The  southern  states  have  very  generally  given  the  negro  Negroes  of 
equal  educational  opportunities  with  the  whites,  while  the 
eagerness  of  the  race  to  learn  is  shown  in  the  recently  ascertained  fact  that 
while  the  colored  population  has  increased  only  twenty-seven  per  cent,  the 
enrollment  in  the  colored  schools  has  increased  one  hundred  and  thirty- 
seven  per  cent.  Fifty  industrial  schools  are  crowded  by  the  colored  youth 
of  the  South.  Institutions  of  higher  education,  like  the  Atlanta  Univer- 
sity, the  Hampton  Institute  of  Virginia,  and  Tuskegee  College  are  doing 
admirable  work  in  turning  out  hundreds  of  negroes  fitted  to  educate  their 
own  race.  Honors  and  scholarships  have  been  taken  by  colored  young  men 
at  Harvard,  at  Cornell,  at  Phillips  Academy  and  at  other  northern  schools 
and  colleges  of  the  highest  rank.  The  fact  that  a  young  negro,  Mr.  Morgan, 
was,  in  1890,  elected  by  his  classmates  at  Harvard  as  the  class  orator  has  a 
a  special  significance.  Yet  there  is  greater  significance,  as  a  Educationai  De 
negro  newspaper  writes,  in  the  fact  that  the  equatorial  telescope  velopmentof 
now  used  by  the  Lawrence  University  of  Wisconsin  was  made 
entirely  by  colored  pupils  in  the  School  of  Mechanical  Arts  of 
Nashville,  Tenn.  In  other  words,  the  Afro-American  is  finding  his  place  as 
an  intelligent  worker,  a  property  owner,  .and  an  independent  citizen,  rather 
than  as  an  agitator,  a  politician  or  a  race  advocate.  In  religion,  supersti- 
tion and  effusive  sentiment  are  giving  way  to  stricter  morality.  In  educa- 
tional matters,  ambition  for  the  high-sounding  and  the  abstract  is  giving 
place  to  practical  and  industrial  acquirements.  It  will  be  many  years 
before  the  character  of  the  negro,  for  centuries  dwarfed  and  distorted  by 
oppression  and  ignorance,  reaches  its  normal  growth,  but  that  the  race 
is  at  last  upon  the  right  path,  and  is  being  guided  by  the  true  principles 
cannot  be  doubted. 


CHAPTER  XXX. 
Abraham  Lincoln  and  the  Work  of  Emancipation. 

AMONG  the  men  who  have  filled  the  office  of  President  of  the  United 
States   two   stand   pre-eminent,   George  Washington    and   Abraham 
Lincoln,  both  of  them  men  not  for  the  admiration  of  a  century  but 
of  the  ages,  heroes  of  history  whose  names  will  live  as  the  chief  figures 
among  the  makers  of  our  nation.      To  the  hand  of  Washington  it  owed  its 
freedom,  to  that  of  Lincoln  its  preservation,  and  the  name  of 
Was|""?iton         the  preserver  will  occupy  a  niche  in  the  temple  of  fame  next 
to    that    of    the    founder.       But    our    feeling    for    Lincoln    is 
different  from  that   with    which  we   regard  the   "  Father  of   his  Country." 
While  we  venerate  the  one,  we  love   the  other.      Washington  was  a  stately 
figure,  too   dignified  for   near  approach.      He  commanded  respect,  admira- 
tion and  loyalty  ;  but  in  addition  to  these  Lincoln  commands  our  affection, 
a  feeling  as  for  one  very  near  and  dear  to  us. 

The  fame  of  Lincoln  is  increasing  as  the  inner  history  of  the  great 
struggle  for  the  life  of  the  nation  becomes  known.  For  almost  two  decades 
after  that  struggle  had  settled  the  permanence  of  our  government,  our 
vision  was  obscured  by  the  near  view  of  the  pygmy  giants  who  "strutted 
their  brief  hour  upon  the  stage  ;"  our  ears  were  filled  with  the  loud  claims 
of  those  who  would  magnify  their  own  little  part,  and,  knowing  the  facts 
concerning  some  one  fraction  of  the  contest,  assumed  from  that  knowledge 
to  proclaim  the  principles  which  should  have  governed  the  whole.  Time  is 
dissipating  the  mist,  and  we  are  coming  better  to  know  the 
great  man  who  had  no  pride  of  opinion,  who  was  willing  to 
let  Seward  or  Sumner  or  McClellan  or  any  one  imagine  him- 
self to  be  the  guiding  spirit  of  the  government,  if  he  were  willing  to  give 
that  government  the  best  service  of  which  he  was  capable.  We  see  more 
clearly  the  real  greatness  of  the  leader  who  was  too  slow  for  one  great  sec- 
tion of  his  people,  and  too  fast  for  another,  too  conservative  'for  those,  too 
radical  for  these  ;  who  refused  to  make  the  contest  merely  a  war  for  the 
negro,  yet  who  saw  the  end  from  the  beginning,  and  led,  not  a  section 
of  his  people,  but  the  whole  people,  away  from  the  Egyptian  plagues  of 
slavery  and  disunion,  and  brought  them,  united  in  sentiment  and  feeling, 
436 


LINCOLN  AND  THE  WORK  OF  EMANCIPATION  437 

to  the  borders  of  the  promised  land.  We  are  coming  to  appreciate  that 
the  "  Father  Abraham  "  who  in  that  Red  Sea  passage  of  fraternal  strife  was 
ready  to  listen  to  every  tale  of  sorrow,  and  who  wanted  it  said  that  he 
"  always  plucked  a  thistle  and  planted  a  flower  when  he  thought  a  flower 
would  grow,"  was  not  only  in  this  sense  the  father  of  his 
people  ;  but  that  he  was  a  truly  great  statesman,  who,  within 
the  limits  of  human  knowledge  and  human  strength,  guided 
the  affairs  of  state  with  a  wisdom,  a  patience,  a  courage  which  belittle  all 
praise,  and  make  him  seem  indeed  a  man  divinely  raised  up,  not  only  to  set 
the  captive  free,  but  in  order  that  "government  of  the  people,  by  the 
people,  and  for  the  people,  shall  not  perish  from  the  earth." 

It  is  not  our  purpose  to  tell  the  story  of  Lincoln's  boyhood — his  days 
of  penury  in  the  miserable  frontier  cabins  of  his  father  in   Kentucky  and 
Indiana,  his  struggles  to  obtain  an  education,  his  pitiful  necessity  of  writing 
his  school  exercises  with  charcoal  on  the  back  of  a  wooden  shovel,  his  efforts 
to  make  a  livelihood  when  he  had  become  a  tall  and  ungainly,  but  strong 
and  vigorous,  youth,  his  work   at  farming,  rail-splitting,  clerking,  boating, 
and   in  other  occupations.      A  journey  on  a  flat-boat  to  New    Ljncoin's  First 
Orleans  gave  him  his  first  acquaintance  with  the  institution  of       Experience 
slavery,  with  which  he  was  thereafter  to  have  so  much  to  do. 
Here  he  witnessed  a  slave  auction.      The  scene  was  one  that  made  a  deep 
and  abiding  impression  on  his  sympathetic  mind,  and  he   is  said  to  have 
declared  to  his  companion,  "  If  I  ever  get  a  chance  to  hit  that  institution, 
Til  hit  it  hard."     Whether  this  is  legend  or  fact,  it  is  certain  that  he  did  get 
a  chance  to  hit  it,  and  did  "  hit  it  hard." 

Difficult  as  it  was  to  obtain  an  education  on  the  rude  frontier  and  in 
the  extreme  poverty  in  which  Lincoln  was  reared,  he  succeeded  by  persistent 
reading  and  study  in  making  himself  the  one  man  of  learning  among  his 
farming  fellows,  and  one  who  was  not  long  content  with  the  occupations  of 
rail-splitting,  flat-boating,  or  even  that  of  keeping  country  store,  which  he 
tried  without  success.  He  was  too  devoted  to  his  books  to  attend  very  care- 
fully to  his  business,  which  left  him  seriously  in  debt,  and  he  soon  chose  the 
law  as  his  vocation,  supporting  himself  meanwhile  by  serving  as  land  sur- 
veyor in  the  neighboring  district. 

Lincoln's  political  career  began  in  1834,  when  his  neighbors,  who  admired 
him  for  his  learning  and  ability,  elected  him  to  represent  them  in  the  Illinois 
legislature.  His  knowledge  was  only  one  of  the  elements  of  his  popularity. 
He  had  acquired  a  reputation  as  a  teller  of  quaint  and  humorous  stories  ; 
he  was  a  champion  wrestler,  and  could  fight  well  if  forced  to  ;  and  he  was 
beginning  to  make  his  mark  as  a  ready  and  able  orator.  In  the  legislature 


438  LINCOLN  AND  THE  WORK  OF  EMANCIPATION 

he  became  prominent  enough  to  gain  twice  the  nomination  of  his  party  for 
speaker.  His  principal  service  there  was  to  advocate  a  system  of  public 
improvements,  whose  chief  result  was  to  plunge  Illinois  deeply 
'"Legislature  'n  debt.  ^  significant  act  of  his  at  this  early  day  in  his  career 
was  to  join  with  a  single  colleague  in  a  written  protest 
against  the  passage  of  resolutions  in  favor  of  slavery.  The  signers 
based  their  action  on  their  belief  that  "  the  institution  of  slavery  is  founded 
on  both  injustice  and  bad  policy."  It  needed  no  little  moral  courage  to 
make  such  a  protest  in  1837  in  a  community  largely  of  southern  origin,  but 
moral  courage  was  a  possession  of  which  Lincoln  had  an  abundant  store. 

In  the  meantime  Lincoln  had  been  admitted  to  the  bar,  and  in  1837  he 
removed  to  Springfield,  where  he  formed  a  partnership  with  an  attorney  of 
established  reputation.  He  became  a  successful  lawyer,  not  so  much  by  his 
knowledge  of  law,  for  this  was  never  great,  as  by  his  ability  as  an  advocate; 
and  by  reason  of  his  sterling  integrity.  He  would  not  be  a  party  to  misrepre- 
sentation, and  more  than  once  refused  to  take  cases  which 
Lincoln  as  a  involved  such  a  result.  He  even  was  known  to  abandon  a  case 

Lawyer 

which   brought    him   unexpectedly  into   this   attitude,  making 

in  his  first  case  before  the  United  States  Circuit  Court  the  unusual  state- 
ment that  he  had  not  been  able  to  find  any  authorities  supporting  his  side 
of  the  case,  but  had  found  several  favoring  the  opposite,  which  he  proceeded 
to  quote. 

The  very  appearance  oi  such  an  attorney  in  any  case  must  have  gone 
far  to  win  the  jury  ;  and,  when  deeply  stirred,  the  power  of  his  oratory,  and 
the  invincible  logic  of  his  argument,  made  him  a  most  formidable  opponent. 
"Yes,"  he  was  overheard  to  say  to  a  would-be  client,  "we  can  doubtless 
gain  your  case  for  you  ;  we  can  set  a  whole  neighborhood  at  loggerheads  ; 
we  can  distress  a  widowed  mother  and  her  six  fatherless  children,  and 
thereby  get  for  you  the  six  hundred  dollars  to  which  you  seem  to  have  a 
legal  claim,  but  which  rightfully  belongs,  it  appears  to  me,  as  much  to  the 
woman  and  her  children  as  it  does  to  you.  You  must  remember  that 
some  things  legally  right  are  not  morally  right.  We  shall  not  take  your 
case,  but  will  give  you  a  little  advice  for  which  we  will  charge  you  nothing. 
You  seem  to  be  a  sprightly,  energetic  man  ;  we  would  advise  you  to  try 
your  hand  at  making  six  hundred  dollars  in  some  other  way." 
in  the  United  ^n  1846  he  accepted  a  nomination  to  Congress  and  was 

States  Con-      triumphantly  elected,  being  the  only  Whig  among  the   seven 
representatives   from    his  state.      As  a  member  of  the   House 
his  voice   was  always  given  on  the  side  of  human    freedom,  he  voting  in 
favor  of  considering  the  petitions  for  the  abolition  of  slavery  and  supporting 


LINCOLN  AND  THE  WORK  OF  EMANCIPATION  439 

the    doctrines    of  the    Wilmot    proviso,    which    opposed    the    extension  of 
slavery  to  the  territory  acquired  from  Mexico. 

As  yet  Lincoln  had  not  made  a  striking  figure  as  a  legislator.  He  was 
admired  by  those  about  him  for  his  sterling  honesty  and  integrity,  but  his 
name  was  hardly  known  in  the  country  at  large,  and  there  was  no  indication 
that  he  would  ever  occupy  a  prominent  position  in  the  politics  of  the  nation. 
It  was  the  threatened  repeal  of  the  Missouri  Compromise,  in  1854,  an  act 
which  would  open  the  western  territory  to  the  admission  of  slavery,  that 
first  fairly  wakened  him  up  and  laid  the  foundation  of  his  remarkable  career. 
The  dangerous  question  which  Henry  Clay  had  set  aside  for  years,  but 
which  was  now  brought  forward  again,  absorbed  his  attention,  and  he  grew 
constantly  more  bold  and  powerful  in  his  denunciation  of  the  encroach- 
ments of  the  slave  power.  He  became,  therefore,  the  natural  champion  of 
his  party  in  the  campaigns  in  which  Senator  Douglas  undertook  to  defend 
before  the  people  of  his  state  his  advocacy  of  "  squatter  sovereignty,"  or 
the  right  of  the  people  of  each  territory  to  decide  whether  it  should  be  ad- 
mitted as  a  slave  or  a  free  state,  and  of  the  Kansas-Nebraska  bill,  by 
which  the  "  Missouri  Compromise  "  was  repealed. 

The  first  great  battle  between  these  two  giants  of  debate  took  place  at 
the  State  Fair  at  Springfield,  in  October,  1854.  Douglas  made  a  great 
speech  to  an  unprecedented  concourse  of  people,  and  was  the  The  Qreat  Lin_ 
lion  of  the  hour.  The  next  day  Lincoln  replied,  and  his  coin  and  Dou- 
effort  was  such  as  to  surprise  both  his  friends  and  his  oppo-  s  as 
nents.  It  was  probably  the  first  occasion  in  which  he  reached  his  full 
power.  In  the  words  of  a  friendly  editor:  "The  Nebraska  bill  was 
shivered,  and  like  a  tree  of  the  forest  was  torn  and  rent  asunder  by  the  hot 
bolts  of  truth.  ...  At  the  conclusion  of  this  speech  every  man  and 
child  felt  that  it  was  unanswerable." 

But  it  was  the  campaign  of  1858  that  made  Lincoln  famous.  In  this 
contest  he  first  fully  displayed  his  powers  as  an  orator  and  logician,  and  won 
the  reputation  that  made  him  President.  Douglas,  his  opponent,  was  im- 
mensely popular  in  the  West.  His  advocacy  of  territorial  expansion 
appealed  to  the  patriotism  of  the  young  and  ardent ;  his  doctrine  of  popular 
sovereignty  was  well  calculated  to  mislead  shallow  thinkers ;  and  his  power 
in  debate  was  so  great  that  he  became  widely  known  as  the  "  Little  Giant." 
But  he  found  a  worthy  champion  of  the  opposite  in  Abraham  Lincoln,  who 
riddled  and  ventilated  many  of  his  specious  arguments,  and  succeeded  in 
inducing  him  to  make  a  statement  that  proved  fatal  to  his  hopes  of  the 
Presidency. 


440  LINCOLN  AND  THE  WORK  OF  EMANCIPATION 

When  Lincoln  proposed  to  press  upon  his  opponent  the  question 
whether  there  were  lawful  means  by  which  slavery  could  be  excluded  from 
a  territory  before  its  admission  as  a  state,  his  friends  suggested  that 

Douglas  would  reply  that  slavery  could  not  exist  unless  it  was 
D Tns^er Fatal  Desired  by  t^le  people,  an^  unless  protected  by  territorial 

legislation,  and  that  this  answer  would  be  sufficiently  satis- 
factory to  insure  his  re-election.  But  Lincoln  replied,  "  I  arn  after  larger 
game.  If  Douglas  so  answers,  he  can  never  be  President,  and  the  battle  of 
1860  is  worth  a  hundred  of  this."  Both  predictions  were  verified.  The 
people  of  the  South  might  have  forgiven  Douglas  his  opposition  to  the 
Lecompton  Constitution  of  Kansas,  but  they  could  not  forgive  the  promulga- 
tion of  a  doctrine  which,  in  spite  of  the  Dred  Scott  decision  (a  Supreme 
Court  decision  to  the  effect  that  a  master  had  the  right  to  take  his  slave 
into  any  state  and  hold  him  there  as  "property"),  would  keep  slavery  out 
of  a  territory  ;  and  so,  although  Douglas  was  elected  and  Lincoln  defeated, 
the  Democracy  was  divided,  and  it  was  impossible  for  Douglas  to  command 
southern  votes  for  the  presidency. 

The  campaign  had  been  opened  with  a  speech  by  Lincoln  which  startled 
the  country  by  its  boldness  and  its  power.  It  was  delivered  at  the  Repub- 
lican convention  which  nominated  him  for  Senator,  and  had  been  pre- 
viously submitted  to  his  confidential  advisers.  They  strenuously  opposed 
the  introduction  of  its  opening  sentences.  He  was  warned  that  they  would 
be  fatal  to  his  election,  and,  in  the  existing  state  of  public  feeling,  might 

permanently   destroy  his  political  prospects.      Lincoln   could 

not  be  moved-  "  It:  is  true"  said  he»  "  and  I  wil1  driver  it  as 
written.  I  would  rather  be  defeated  with  these  expressions 
in  my  speech  held  up  and  discussed  before  the  people  than  be  victorious 
without  them."  The  paragraph  gave  to  the  country  a  statement  of  the 
problem  as  terse  and  vigorous  and  even  more  complete  than  Seward's  "  irre- 
pressible conflict,"  and  as  startling  as  Sumner's  proposition  that  "freedom 
was  national,  slavery  sectional."  "A  house  divided  against  itself,"  said 
Lincoln,  "  cannot  stand.  I  believe  this  government  cannot  endure  per- 
manently half  slave  and  half  free.  I  do  not  expect  the  Union  to  be  dis- 
solved ;  I  do  not  expect  the  house  to  fall  ;  but  I  expect  it  will  cease  to  be 
divided.  It  will  become  all  one  thing  or  all  the  other.  Either  the  opponents 
of  slavery  will  arrest  the  farther  spread  of  it,  and  place  it  where  the  public 
mind  shall  rest  in  the  belief  that  it  is  in  the  course  of  ultimate  extinction,  or 
its  advocates  will  push  it  forward  till  it  shall  become  alike  lawful  in  all  the 
states, — old  as  well  as  new,  North  as  well  as  South." 


LINCOLN  AND  THE  WORK  OF  EMANCIPATION  441 

Never  had  the  issues  of  a  political  campaign  seemed  more  momentous ; 
never  was  one  more  ably  contested.  The  triumph  of  the  doctrine  of 
"popular  sovereignty,"  in  the  Kansas-Nebraska  bill,  had  opened  the  terri- 
tories to  slavery,  while  it  professed  to  leave  the  question  to  be  decided  by 
the  people.  To  the  question  whether  the  people  of  a  territory  could 
exclude  slavery  Douglas  had  answered,  "That  is  a  question  for  the  courts 
to  decide,"  but  the  Dred  Scott  decision,  practically  holding 
that  the  Federal  Constitution  guaranteed  the  right  to  hold 
slaves  in  the  territories,  seemed  to  make  the  pro-slavery  cause 
triumphant.  The  course  of  Douglas  regarding  the  Lecompton  Constitu- 
tion, however,  had  made  it  possible  for  his  friends  to  describe  him  as  "the 
true  champion  of  freedom,"  while  Lincoln  continually  exposed,  with  merci- 
less force,  the  illogical  position  of  his  adversary,  and  his  complete  lack  of 
political  morality. 

Douglas  claimed  that  the  doctrine  of  popular  sovereignty  "  originated 
when  God  made  man  and  placed  good  and  evil  before  him,  allowing  him  to 
choose  upon  his  own  responsibility."  But  Lincoln  declared  with  great 
solemnity  :  "  No  ;  God  did  not  place  good  and  evil  before  man,  telling  him 
to  take  his  choice.  On  the  contrary,  God  did  tell  him  that  there  was  one 
tree  of  the  fruit  of  which  he  should  not  eat,  upon  pain  of  death."  The 
question  was  to  him  one  of  right,  a  high  question  of  morality,  and  only 
upon  such  a  question  could  he  ever  be  fully  roused.  "  Slavery  is  wrong," 
was  the  keynote  of  his  speeches.  But  he  did  not  take  the  position  of  the 
abolitionists.  He  even  admitted  that  the  South  was  entitled,  under  the 
Constitution,  to  a  national  fugitive  slave  law,  though  his  soul  revolted  at 
the  law  which  was  then  in  force.  His  position,  as  already  cited,  was  that 
of  the  Republican  party.  He  would  limit  the  extension  of  Lincoln's  Views 
slavery,  and  place  it  in  such  a  position  as  would  insure  its  on  the  Slavery 
ultimate  extinction.  It  was  a  moderate  course,  viewed  from  Que 
this  distance  of  time,  but  in  the  face  of  a  dominant,  arrogant,  irascible  pro- 
slavery  sentiment  it  seemed  radical  in  the  extreme,  calculated,  indeed,  to 
fulfill  a  threat  he  had  made  to  the  governor  of  the  state.  He  had  been 
attempting  to  secure  the  release  of  a  young  negro  from  Springfield  who  was 
wrongfully  detained  in  New  Orleans,  and  who  was  in  danger  of  being  sold 
for  prison  expenses.  Moved  to  the  depths  of  his  being  by  the  refusal  of 
the  official  to  interfere,  Lincoln  exclaimed  :  "  By  God,  governor,  I'll  make 
the  ground  of  this  country  too  hot  for  the  foot  of  a  slave! 

Douglas  was  re-elected.      Lincoln   had   hardly  anticipated   a  different 
result,  and  he  had  nothing  of  the  feeling  of  defeat.     On  the  contrary,  he 
felt   that   the  corner-stone  of  victory  had   been   laid.      He  had  said  of  his 
25 


442  LINCOLN  AND  THE  WORK  OF  EMANCIPATION 

opening  speech  :  "If  I  had  to  draw  a  pen  across  my  record,  and  erase  my 
whole  life  from  sight,  and  I  had  one  poor  gift  or  choice  left  as  to  what  I 
should  choose  to  save  from  the  wreck,  I  should  choose  that  speech,  and 
leave  it  to  the  world  unerased." 

The  great  debate  had  made  Lincoln  famous.      In  Illinois  his  name  was 

a  household  word.      His  stand  for  the  liberty  of  the  slave  was  on  the  lips  of 

the  advocates  of  human  freedom  through  all  the  country.     Deep  and  wide- 

The  Cooper         spread  interest  was  felt  in  the  East  for  this  prairie  orator,  and 

Institute  when,  in  1860,  he  appeared  by  invitation  to  deliver  an  address 

Speech  jn   tjlg   cOOper  Institute,  of  New  York,  he  was  welcomed  by 

an  audience  of  the  mental  calibre  of  those  who  of  old  gathered  to  hear 

Clay  and  Webster  speak. 

It  was  a  deeply  surprised  audience.  They  expected  to  be  treated  to 
something  of  the  freshness,  but  much  of  the  shallowness,  of  the  frontier 
region,  and  listened  with  astonishment  and  admiration  to  the  dignified,  clear, 
and  luminous  oration  of  the  prairie  statesman.  It  is  said  that  those  who 
afterwards  published  the  speech  as  a  campaign  document  were  three  weeks 
in  verifying  its  historical  and  other  statements,  so  deep  and  abundant  was 
the  learning  it  displayed. 

He  had  taken  the  East  by  storm.  He  was  invited  to  speak  in  many 
places  in  New  England,  and  everywhere  met  with  the  most  flattering 
reception,  which  surprised  almost  as  much  as  it  delighted  hir  i.  It  astonished 
him  to  hear  that  the  Professor  of  Rhetoric  of  Yale  College  took  notes  of 
his  speech  and  lectured  upon  them  to  his  class,  and  followed  him  to  Meriden 
the  next  evening  to  hear  him  again  for  the  same  purpose.  An  intelligent 
hearer  spoke  to  him  of  the  remarkable  "  clearness  of  your 
ANewrEn  land  statements>  tne  unanswerable  style  of  your  reasoning,  and 
especially  your  illustrations,  which  are  romance  and  pathos, 
fun  and  logic,  all  welded  together."  Perhaps  his  style  could  not  be  better 
described.  He  himself  said  that  it  used  to  anger  him,  when  a  child,  to  hear 
statements  which  he  could  not  understand,  and  he  was  thus  led  to  form  the 
habit  of  turning  over  a  thought  until  it  was  in  language  any  boy  could 
comprehend. 

It  is  not  necessary  to  tell  in  detail  what  followed.  Lincoln  had  attained 
the  high  eminence  of  being  considered  as  a  suitable  candidate  for  President, 
and  when  the  Republican  Convention  of  1860  met  in  Chicago,  he  found  him- 
self looked  upon  as  the  man  for  the  West.  ,Seward  was  a  prominent  candi- 
date, but  his  candidacy  sank  before  that  of  the  choice  of  the  westerners,  who 
were  roused  to  a  frenzy  of  enthusiasm  when  some  of  the  rails  which  Lincoln 
had  split  were  borne  into  the  hall.  He  was  nominated  on  the  third  ballot. 


LINCOLN  AND  THE  WORK  OF  EMANCIPATION  443 

amid  the  wildest  acclamations.  In  the  campaign  that  followed  Lincoln  and 
Hamlin  were  the  triumphant  candidates,  winning  their  seats  by  a  majority 
of  fifty-seven  in  the  electoral  college.  The  poor  rail-splitter  of  Illinois  had 
lifted  himself,  by  pure  force  of  genius,  to  be  President  of  the  The  Rai,_ 
United  States  of  America.  From  that  time  forward  the  splitter  Made 
life  of  Abraham  Lincoln  is  the  history  of  the  great  Civil  President 
War.  His  task  was  such  as  few  men  had  ever  faced  before.  The  mighty 
republic  of  the  West,  the  most  promising  experiment  in  self-government 
by  the  people  that  the  world  had  ever  known,  seemed  about  to  end  in  failure. 
No  man  did  more  to  save  it  from  destruction  and  start  it  on  its  future 
course  of  greatness  and  renown  than  this  western  prodigy  of  genius  and 
rectitude. 

Mr.  Lincoln  called  to  his  cabinet  the  ablest  men  of  his  party,  two  of 
whom,  Seward  and  Chase,  had  been  his  competitors  for  the  nomination,  and 
the  new  administration  devoted  itself  to  the  work  of  saving  the  Union. 
Every  means  was  tried  to  prevent  the  secession  of  the  border  states,  and 
the  President  delayed  until  Fort  Sumter  had  been  fired  upon  before  he 
began  active  measures  for  the  suppression  of  the  rebellion  and  called  for 
seventy-five  thousand  volunteers. 

The  great  question,  from  the  start,  was   the  treatment  of  the  negro. 
The   advanced  anti-slavery  men   demanded  decisive  action,  and   could   not 
understand  that  success  depended  absolutely  upon  the  administration  com- 
manding the  support  of  the  whole  people.     And  so   Mr.  Lincoln  incurred 
the  displeasure  and  lost  the  confidence  of  some  of  those  who  had  been  his 
heartiest  supporters,  by  keeping  the  negro  in  the  background  and  making 
the   preservation   of  the   Union  the   great  end  for  which   he  strove.      He 
repeatedly  declared  that,  if  he  could  do  so,  he  would  preserve  the   Union 
with  slavery,  and  further  said,  "I  could  not  feel  that,  to  the   The  Great 
best  of  my  ability,  I  had  even  tried  to  preserve  the  Constitu-      Question  of 
tion,  if,  to   save   slavery  or  for  any   minor  matter,    I  should 
permit   the  wreck  of  government,  country  and  Constitution,  all   together." 
Only  when  it  became  evident  that  the  North  was  in  accord  with  him  in  his 
detestation  of  slavery  did  the  President  venture  to  strike  the  blow  which 
was  to  bring  that  perilous  system  to  an  end. 

In  the  dark  days  of  1862,  when  the  reverses  of  the  Union  arms  cast  a 
gloom  over  the  North,  and  European  governments  were  seriously  consider- 
ing the  propriety  of  recognizing  the  Confederacy,  it  seemed  to  Mr.  Lincoln 
that  the  time  had  come,  that  the  North  was  prepared  to  support  a  radical 
measure,  and  that  emancipation  would  not  only  weaken  the  South  at  home, 
but  would  make  it  impossible  for  any  European  government  to  take  the 


444  LINCOLN  AND  TffE  WORK  OF  EMANCIPATION 

attitude  toward  slavery  which  would  be  involved  in  recognizing  the  Con- 
federacy. Action  was  delayed  until  a  favorable  moment,  and  after  the 
victory  of  Antietam  the  President  called  his  cabinet  together  and  announced 
TheProclama-  tnat  ^e  was  about  to  issue  the  Proclamation  of  Emancipation. 

tionof  Eman-  It  was  a  solemn  moment.      The  President  had  made  a  vow — 

cipation  „  j  promisecj    mv  God,"  were    his  words — that    if  the  tide    of 

invasion  should  be  mercifully  arrested,  he  would  set  the  negro  free.  The 
hnal  proclamation,  issued  three  months  later,  fitly  closes  with  an  appeal 
which  indicates  the  devout  spirit  in  which  the  deed  was  done  :  "  And  upon 
this  act,  sincerely  believed  to  be  an  act  of  justice,  warranted  by  the  Consti- 
tution upon  military  necessity,  I  invoke  the  considerate  judgment  of  man- 
kind, and  the  gracious  favor  of  Almighty  God." 

The  question  of  slavery  was  only  one  of  the  many  with  which  Lincoln 
had  to  contend.  Questions  of  foreign  policy,  of  finance,  of  the  conduct  of 
the  war,  of  a  dozen  different  kinds  pressed  upon  him  for  solution,  while 
dissensions  in  his  cabinet  and  incompetence  in  the  army  made  his  task  any- 
thing but  a  pleasant  one.  His  personal  advisers,  Stanton,  Seward,  Chase, 
and  others,  were  strong  and  able  men,  but  above  them  was  a  stronger  man, 
who  held  firmly  in  his  own  hands  the  reins  of  government,  and  would  not 
yield  them  to  any  of  his  ambitious  subordinates,  nor  change  his  fixed  policy 
at  the  bidding  of  irresponsible  critics  and  fault-finders. 

Upon  what  Lincoln  called  "  the  plain  people  " — the  mass  of  his  country- 
men— he  could  always  depend,  because  he,  more  than  any  other  political 
Lincoln  and  leader  in  our  history,  understood  them.  Sumner,  matchless 

the  «•  Plain  advocate  of  liberty  as  he  was,  distrusted  the  President,  and 
was  desirous  of  getting  the  power  out  of  his  hands  into 
stronger  and  safer  ones.  But  suddenly  the  great  Massachusetts  senator 
awoke  to  the  fact  that  he  could  not  command  the  support  of  his  own  con- 
stituency, and  found  it  necessary  to  issue  an  interview  declaring  himself  not 
an  opponent,  but  a  supporter,  of  Lincoln.  The  President's  grasp  of  ques- 
tions of  state  policy  was,  indeed,  stronger  than  that  of  any  of  his  advisers. 
The  important  dispatch  to  our  minister  in  England,  in  May,  1861,  outlining 
the  course  to  be  pursued  towards  that  power,  has  been  published  in  its 
original  draft,  showing  the  work  of  the  Secretary  of  State  and  President 
Lincoln's  alterations.  Of  this  publication  the  editor  of  the 

Diplomatist      North  American  Review  says :  "  Many  military  men,  who  have 
had  access  to  Lincoln's  papers,  have  classed   him  as  the  best 
general   of  the  war.     This  paper  will  go  far  toward  establishing  his  reputa- 
tion  as  its   ablest  diplomatist."     It  would  be  impossible  for  any  intelligent 
person  to  study  the  paper  thus  published,  the  omissions,  the  alterations, 


ROBERT  EDMUND  LEE.     (1807-1870) 


WILLIAM  T.  SHERMAN       (1820-1691 


LINCOLN  AND  THE  WORK  OF  EMANCIPATION  447 

the  substitutions,  without  acknowledging  that  they  were  the  work  of 
a  master  mind,  and  that  the  raw  backwoodsman,  not  three  months  in  office, 
was  the  peer  of  any  statesman  with  whom  he  might  find  it  necessary  to 
cope.  He  was  entirely  willing  to  grant  to  his  secretaries  and  to  his  generals 
the  greatest  liberty  of  action  ;  he  was  ready  to  listen  to  any  one,  and  to 
accept  advice  even  from  hostile  critics ;  and  his  readiness  made  them  think, 
sometimes,  that  he  had  little  mental  power  of  his  own,  and  brought  upon 
him  the  charge  of  weakness ;  bat,  as  the  facts  have  become  more  fully 
known,  it  has  grown  more  and  more  evident  that  he  was  not  only  the  "best 
general "  and  the  "  ablest  diplomatist,"  but  the  greatest  man  among  all  the 
great  men  whom  that  era  of  trial  brought  to  the  rescue  of  our  country. 

And  when  the  end  came,  after  four-  years  of  desperate  conflict ;  when 
Lee  had  surrendered  and  the  work  of  saving  the  Union  seemed  complete  ; 
when  the  liberator  was  made,  by  the  assassin's  hand,  the  martyr 
to  that  great  cause  which  he  had  carried  to  its  glorious  termina- 
tion,  a  depth  of  pathos  was  added  to  our  memory  of  America's 
noblest  man,  insuring  him  a  fame  that  was  worth  dying  for,  that  crown  of 
human  sympathy  which  lends  glory  to  martyrdom. 

The  story  of  the  end  need  hardly  be  told.  On  the  evening  of  April 
14,  1865,  Abraham  Lincoln  was  shot  by  a  half-crazed  sympathizer  with  the 
South,  John  Wilkes  Booth.  The  President  had  gone,  by  special  invitation, 
to  witness  a  play  at  Ford's  Theatre,  and  the  assassin  had  no  difficulty  in 
gaining  entrance  to  the  box,  committing  the  dreadful  deed,  and  leaping  to 
the  stage  to  make  his  escape.  The  story  of  his  pursuit  and  death  while 
resisting  arrest  is  familiar  to  us  all.  Mr.  Lincoln  lingered  till  the  morning, 
when  the  little  group  of  friends  and  relatives,  with  members  of  the  cabinet, 
stood  with  breaking  hearts  about  the  death-bed. 

Sorrow  more  deep  and  universal  cannot  be  imagined  than  enveloped 
our  land  on  that  i5th  of  April.  Throughout  the  country  every  household 
felt  the  loss  as  of  one  of  themselves.  The  honored  remains  lay  for  a  few 
days  in  state  at  Washington,  and  then  began  the  funeral  journey,  taking  in 
backward  course  almost  the  route  which  had  been  followed 
four  years  before,  when  the  newly-elected  President  went  to 
assume  his  burdens  of  his  high  office.  Such  a  pilgrimage  of 
sorro'w  had  never  been  witnessed  by  our  people.  It  was  followed  by  the 
sympathy  of  the  whole  world  until  the  loved  remains  were  laid  in  the  tomb 
at  Springfield,  Illinois.  Over  the  door  of  the  state  house,  in  the  city  of  his 
home,  where  his  old  neighbors  took  their  last  farewell,  were  these  lines : 

"  He  left  us  borne  up  by  our  prayers ; 
He  returns  embalmed  in  our  tear*. " 


448  LINCOLN  AND  THE  WORK  OF  EMANCIPATION 

Abraham  Lincoln  was  in  every  way  a  remarkable  man.  Towering 
above  his  fellows,  six  feet  four  inches  in  height,  his  giant  figure,  with  its 
inclination  to  stoop,  of  itself  attracted  attention.  While  possessed  of 
gigantic  strength,  he  was  diffident  and  modest  in  the  extreme.  The  expres- 
sion of  his  face  was  sad,  and  that  sadness  deepened  as  the  war  dragged  on 
and  causes  for  national  depression  increased.  Melancholy  was  hereditary 
A  Man  of  with  him,  and  it  is  doubtful  if  his  mind  was  ever  free  from  a 

Melancholy  degree  of  mental  dejection.  On  certain  occasions  he  was 
and  of  Wit  almost  overwhelmed  by  it.  Yet  with  all  this  he  was  one  of 
the  readiest  inventors  and  gatherers  of  amusing  stories,  which  were  inimit- 
able as  told  by  him.  He  opened  the  cabinet  meeting  in  which  he  announced 
his  purpose  to  issue  the  Emancipation  Proclamation  by  reading  to  his  dig- 
nified associates  a  chapter  from  Artemus  Ward.  His  jokes  were  usually 
for  a  purpose.  He  settled  more  than  one  weighty  question  by  the  wit  of  a 
homely  "yarn,"  that  told  better  than  hours  of  argument  would  have  done. 
A  signal  illustration  of  his  method  is  the  telling  aphorism  by  which  he  once 
settled  the  question  of  changing  the  generals  in  command  :  "  It  is  a  bad 
plan  to  swap  horses  crossing  a  stream." 

His  gift  of  expression  was  only  equaled  by  the  clearness  and  firmness 
of  his  grasp  upon  the  truths  which  he  desired  to  convey  ;  and  the  beauty  of 
his  words,  upon  many  occasions,  is  only  matched  by  the  goodness  and  purity 
of  the  soul  from  which  they  sprung.  His  Gettysburg  speech  will  be 
remembered  as  long  as  the  story  of  the  battle  for  freedom  shall  be  told  ; 
and  of  his  second  inaugural  it  has  been  said  :  "  This  was  like  a  sacred 
poem.  No  American  President  had  ever  spoken  words  like  these  to  the 
American  people.  America  never  had  a  President  who  found  such  words 
in  the  depth  of  his  heart."  The  following  were  its  closing  words,  and  with 
them  we  may  fitly  close  this  imperfect  sketch  : 

"  Fondly  do  we  hope,  fervently  do  we  pray,  that  this  mighty  scourge  of 
war  may  speedily  pass  away.  Yet  if  God  wills  that  it  continue  until  all 
The  Great  t^ie  wealth  piled  by  the  bondman's  two  hundred  and  fifty  years 

Gettysburg  of  unrequited  toil  shall  be  sunk,  and  until  every  drop  of  blood 
drawn  with  the  lash  shall  be  paid  by  another  drawn  with  the 
sword  ;  as  was  said  three  thousand  years  ago,  so  still  it  must  be  said,  '  The 
judgments  of  the  Lord  are  true  and  righteous  altogether.'  With  malice 
toward  none,  with  charity  for  all,  with  firmness  in  the  right  as  God  gives 
us  to  see  the  right,  let  us  strive  on  to  finish  the  work  we  are  in  ;  to  bind  up 
the  nation's  wounds  ;  to  care  for  him  who  shall  have  borne  the  battle,  and 
for  his  widow  and  his  orphan  ;  to  do  all  which  may  achieve  and  cherish  a 
just  and  lasting  peace  among  ourselves  and  with  all  nations," 


CHAPTER   XXXI. 

Grant  and  Lee  and  the  Civil  War. 

IN    several    of  the  preceding  chapters   the   causes  which  led  the  United 
States  into  its  great  fratricidal  war  have   been  given.      In    the  present 

we  propose  to  deal  with  the  war  itself ;  not  to  describe  it  in  detail, — 
that  belongs  to  general  history, — but  to  speak  of  its  great  soldiers  and  its 
leading  events,  which  form  the  chosen  topics  of  this  work.  Of  the  states- 
men brought  into  prominence  by  the  war,  President  Lincoln  was  the  chief, 
and  we  have  given  an  account  of  his  life.  Of  its  famous  The  Qreat 
soldiers  two  stand  pre-eminent,  Ulysses  S.  Grant  and  Robert  Leaders  of  the 
K.  Lee,  and  around  the  careers  of  these  two  men  the  whole  Civil  War 
story  of  the  war  revolves.  They  did  not  stand  alone  ;  there  were  others 
who  played  leading  parts, — Thomas,  Sherman,  Sheridan,  McClellan  and 
others,  on  the  Union  side;  Jackson,  Johnston  and  others  on  the  Con- 
federate,— but  this  is  not  a  work  of  biographical  sketches,  and  our  main 
attention  must  be  centred  upon  the  two  leading  figures  in  the  war,  the 
mighty  opponents  who  linked  arms  in  the  desperate  struggle  from  the 
Wilderness  to  Appomattox. 

Grant  was  a  modest  and  retiring  man.  While  others  were  strenuously 
pushing  their  claims  to  command,  he,  an  experienced  soldier  of  the  Mexican 
war,  held  back  and  was  thrust  aside  by  the  crowd  of  enterprising  incompe- 
tents, doing  anything  that  was  offered  him,  the  coming  Napoleon  of  the  war 
performing  services  suitable  for  a  drill  sergeant.  But  gradually  men  of  experi- 
ence in  war  began  to  find  their  appropriate  places,  and  in  August,  1861,  Grant 

was  made  brigadier-general  and  given  command  of  a  district 

•       11-  AT-  ir  TJ       Grant  Takes 

including    southeast   Missouri    and    western    Kentucky.       Me       command 

soon   set  out  to  meet  the  Confederates,  and   found   them  at 

Belmont,  Missouri,  where  he  drove  them  back  in  a  hard  four  hours'  fight. 

Then'  they  were  reinforced  and  advanced  in  such   strength  that  Grant  and 

his  men  were  in  danger  of  being  cut  off  from  the  boats  in  which  they  had 

come. 

"  We  are  surrounded,"  cried  the  men,  in  some  alarm. 

"Well,  then,"  said  Grant,  "we  must  cut  our  way  out,  as  we  cut  our 
way  in,"  and  they  did.  It  was  the  only  retreat  in  Grant's  career. 

449 


450  GRANT  AND  LEE  AND  THE  CIVIL   WAR 

Meanwhile,  in  the  East,  the  battle  of  Bull  Run  had  been  fought,  to  the 
dismay  of  the  Union  side,  the  triumph  of  the  Confederate.  There  fol- 
lowed an  autumn  and  winter  of  weary  waiting,  which  severely  tried  the 
patience  of  North  and  South  alike,  both  sides  being  eager  for  something  to 
be  done.  Early  in  the  following  year  something  was  done,  but  not  in  the 
region  where  the  people  looked  for  it.  While  attention  was  chiefly  concen- 
trated upon  the  Potomac,  where  McClellan  was  organizing  and  drilling  that 
splendid  army  which  another  and  a  greater  commander  was  to  lead  to  final 
victory  ;  while  the  only  response  to  the  people's  urgent  call,  "  On  to  Rich- 
mond !"  was  the  daily  report,  "All  quiet  on  the  Potomac:" 

All  Quiet  on  the     ~  11  11-  i  • 

Potomac  Grant,  an  obscure  and  almost  unknown  soldier,  was  pushing 

forward  against  Forts  Henry  and  Donelson,  eleven  miles 
apart,  on  the  Tennessee  and  the  Cumberland,  near  where  these  rivers  cross 
the  line  dividing  Kentucky  and  Tennessee. 

He  had  obtained  from  his  commander,  Halleck,  a  reluctant  consent  to 
his  plan  for  attacking  these  important  posts  with  a  land  force,  co-operating  at 
the  same  time  with  a  fleet  of  gunboats  under  Commodore  Foote.  It  was 
the  month  of  February  and  bitterly  cold.  Amid  sleet  and  snow  the  men 
pushed  along  the  roads,  arriving  at  Fort  Henry  just  after  it  had  been  captured, 
as  the  result  of  a  severe  bombardment,  by  the  gunboats.  Grant  immediately 
turned  his  attention  to  Fort  Donelson,  which  had  been  reinforced  by  a  large 
part  of  the  garrison  that  had  escaped  from  Fort  Henry.  It  was  held  by 
Generals  Buckner,  Floyd  and  Pillow  with  20,000  men.  For  three  days  a  fierce- 
attack  was  kept  up.  Buckner,  who  had  been  at  West  Point  with  Grant, 
and  doubtless  knew  that  he  was,  as  his  wife  designated  him,  "a  very 
obstinate  man, "sent  on  the  morning  of  the  fourth  day,  under  a  flag  of  truce, 
to  ask  what  terms  of  surrender  would  be  granted.  In  reply  Grant  sent 
The  Surrender  that  brief,  stern  message  which  thrilled  throughout  the  North, 
of  Fort  stirring  the  blood  in  every  loyal  heart :  "  No  terms  but  un- 

conditional and  immediate  surrender  can  be  accepted.  I 
propose  to  move  immediately  upon  your  works." 

Buckner  protested  against  the  terms  ;  but  he  was  obliged  to  accept 
them  and  to  surrender  unconditionally.  With  Fort  Donelson  were  surren- 
dered 15,000  men,  3,000  horses,  sixty-five  cannon,  and  a  great  quantity  of 
small  arms  and  military  stores.  It  was  the  first  victory  for  the  North,  and 
the  whole  country  was  electrified.  Grant's  reply  to  Buckner  became  a 
household  word,  and  the  people  of  the  North  delighted  to  call  him,  "  Un- 
conditional Surrender  Grant."  He  was  made  a  major-general  of  volunteers, 
his  commission  bearing  date  of  February  16,  1862,  the  day  of  the  surrender 
of  Fort  Donelson, 


GRANT  AND  LEE  AND  THE  CIVIL   WAR  451 

On    April    6th,   less   than  two   months   afterwards,  another  of   Grant's 
great  battles  was  fought,  at  Shiloh,  or   Pittsburg  Landing,  in    TheTerribie 
Mississippi.      In  this  battle  Sherman  was  Grant's  chief  lieuten-      struggle  at 
ant,    and    the  two  men    tested   each   other's  qualities   in  the       Pittsburg 
greatest  trial  to  which  either  had  as  yet  been  exposed.     The 
battle  was  one  of  the  turning-points  of  the  war.    The  Confederates,  50,000 
strong,  under  Albert  Sidney  Johnston,  one  of  their  best  generals,  attacked 
the  Union  force  of  40,000  men  at  Shiloh  Church.     All  day  on  Sunday  the 
battle  raged.     The  brave  Johnston  was  killed;  but  the  Union  forces  were 
driven  back,  and  at  night  their  lines  were  a  mile  in  the  rear  of  their  position 
in  the  morning.    Grant  came  into  his  headquarters'  tent  that  evening,  when, 
to  any  but  the  bravest  and  most  sanguine,  the  battle  seemed  lost,  and  said  : 
"  Well,  it  was  tough  work  to-day,  but  we  will   beat  them  out  of  their  boots 
to-morrow."      "When  his  staff  and  the  generals  present  heard  this,"  writes 
one  of  his  officers,  "  they  were  as  fully  persuaded  of  the  result  of  the  mor- 
row's battle  as  when  the  victory  had  actually  been  achieved." 

The  next  day,  after  dreadful  fighting,  the  tide  turned  in  favor  of  the 
Union  forces,  which  had  been  strongly  reinforced  by  General  Buell  during 
the  night.  In  the  afternoon  Grant  himself  led  a  charge  against  the  Con- 
federate lines,  under  which  they  broke  and  were  driven  back.  Night  found 
the  Union  army  in  possession  of  the  field,  after  one  of  the  severest  battles 
of  the  war. 

A  man  who  wins  victories  is  apt  to  become  a  fair  foil  for  criticism  from 
those  who  lose  them.  "  Grant  is  a  drunkard,"  said  his  opponents.  This 
charge  came  to  the  President's  ears.  "  Grant  drinks  too  much  whisky," 
some  fault-finder  said.  Lincoln  replied,  with  his  dry  humor.  "  I  wish  you 
would  tell  me  what  brand  of  whisky  General  Grant  uses  ;  I  should  like  to 
send  some  of  it  to  our  other  generals." 

It  would  doubtless  have  been  better  if  this  general,  who  drank  a  fight- 
ing brand  of  whisky,  had  been  brought  to  the  East,  where  the  war  was 
proceeding  in  a  manner  far  from  satisfactory.  For  six  days 
the  armies  of  Lee  and  McClellan  met  in  desperate  battle 
before  Richmond,  the  Union  army  being  driven  from  all  its 
positions,  and  forced  to  seek  a  new  base  on  the  James  River.  This  disaster 
was  followed  by  a  second  conflict  at  Bull  Run,  which  ended  in  one  of 
the  most  sanguinary  defeats  of  the  Union  side  during  the  war.  The 
repulse  was  in  a  measure  retrieved  by  McClellan  at  Antietam,  yet  affairs 
did  not  look  very  bright  for  the  Union  cause,  and  in  the  winter  of  1862-63 
there  was  much  depression  in  the  North.  The  terrible  defeats  at  Fred- 
ericksburg  and  Chahcellorsville  added  to  the  anxiety  of  the  people,  and 


452  GRANT  AND  LEE  AND  THE  CIVIL   WAR 

the  necessity  of  some  signal  success  seemed  urgent.  Such  a  success 
came  in  double  measure  in  the  following  summer,  at  Gettysburg  and  at 
Vicksburg. 

On  a  high  bluff  on  the  east  bank  of  the  Mississippi  River,  which 
pursues  a  winding  course  through  its  fertile  valley,  stands  the  town  of 
Vicksburg.  From  this  point  a  railroad  ran  to  the  eastward,  and  from  the 
opposite  shore  another  ran  westward  through  the  rich,  level  country  of 
Louisiana.  The  town  was  strongly  fortified,  and  from  its  elevation  it  com 
manded  the  river  in  both  directions.  So  long  as  it  was  held 

The  Vicksburg     by   the    Confederate    armies,    the    Mississippi    could    not    be 
Problem  .  '  *v 

opened  to  navigation  ;  and  the  line  of  railroad  running  east 

and  west  kept  communication  open  between  the  western  and  eastern  parts 
of  the  Confederacy.  How  to  capture  Vicksburg  was  a  great  problem  ;  but 
it  was  one  which  General  Grant  determined  should  be  solved. 

For  eight  months  he  worked  at  this  problem.  He  formed  plan  after 
plan,  only  to  be  forced  to  abandon  them.  Sherman  made  a  direct  attack  at 
the  only  place  where  a  landing  was  practicable,  and  failed.  Weeks  were 
spent  in  cutting  a  canal  across  the  neck  of  a  peninsula  formed  by  a  great 
bend  in  the  river  opposite  Vicksburg,  so  as  to  bring  the  gunboats  through 
without  their  passing  under  the  fire  of  the  batteries  ;  but  a  flood  destroyed  the 
work.  Meanwhile  great  numbers  of  the  troops  were  ill  with  malaria  or  other 
diseases,  and  many  died.  There  was  much  clamor  at  Washington  to  have 
Grant  removed,  but  the  President  refused.  He  had  faith  in  Grant,  and 
determined  to  give  him  time  to  work  out  the  great  problem, — how  to  get 
below  and  in  the  rear  of  Vicksburg,  on  the  Mississippi  River. 

This  was  at  last  accomplished.  On  a  dark  night  the  gunboats  were 
successfully  run  past  the  batteries,  although  every  one  of  them  was  more 
or  less  damaged  by  the  guns.  The  troops  were  marched  across  the  penin- 
sula, and  then  taken  down  the  river  on  the  side  opposite  the  town  ;  and  on 
April  3Oth  the  whole  force  was  landed  on  the  Mississippi  side,  on  high 
ground,  and  at  a  point  where  it  could  reach  the  enemy. 

The  railroad  running  east  from  Vicksburg  connected  that  city  with 
Jackson,  the  state  capital,  which  was  an  important  railway 
centre,  and  from  which  Vicksburg  was  supplied.  Grant  made 
his  movements  with  great  rapidity.  He  fought  in  quick  suc- 
cession a  series  of  battles  by  which  Jackson  and  several  other  towns  were 
captured  ;  then,  turning  westward,  he  attacked  the  forces  of  Pemberton,  drove 
him  back  into  Vicksburg,  cut  off  his  supplies,  and  laid  siege  to  the  place. 

The  eyes  of  the  whole  nation  were  now  centred  on  Vicksburg.  More 
than  two  hundred  guns  were  brought  to  bear  upon  the  place,  besides  the 


GRANT  AND  LEE  AND  THE  CIVIL   WAR  453 

batteries  of  the  gunboats.  In  default  of  mortars,  guns  were  improvised 
by  boring  out  tough  logs,  strongly  bound  with  iron  bands,  which  did  good  ser- 
vice. The  people  of  Vicksburg  took  shelter  in  cellars  and  caves 
to  escape  the  shot  and  shell.  Food  of  all  kinds  became  very 
scarce  ;  flour  was  sold  at  five  dollars  a  pound,  molasses  at 
twelve  dollars  a  gallon.  The  endurance  and  devotion  of  the  inhabitants 
were  wonderful.  But  the  siege  was  so  rigidly  and  relentlessly  maintained 
that  there  could  be  only  one  end.  On  July  3d,  at  ten  o'clock,  flags  of  truce 
were  displayed  on  the  works,  and  General  Pemberton  sent  a  message  to 
Grant  asking  for  an  armistice,  and  proposing  that  commissioners  should 
be  appointed  to  arrange  terms  of  capitulation. 

On  the  afternoon  of  the  same  day.  Grant  and  Pemberton  met  under 
a.i  oak  between  the  lines  of  the  two  armies  and  arranged  the  terms  of  sur- 
render. It  took  three  hours  for  the  Confederate  army  to  march  out  and 
stack  their  arms.  There  were  surrendered  31,000  men,  250  cannon,  and  a 
great  quantity  of  arms  and  munitions  of  war.  But  the  moral  advantage  to 
the  Union  cause  was  far  beyond  any  material  gain.  The  fall  of  Vicksburg 
carried  with  it  that  of  Port  Hudson,  a  few  miles  below,  which  surrendered 
to  Banks  a  few  days  later  ;  and  at  last  the  great  river  was  open  from  St. 
Louis  to  the  sea. 

The  news  of  this  great  victory  came  to  the  North  on  the  same  day 
with  that  of  Gettysburg,  July  4,    1863.     The  rejoicing  over   The  Great  Vic- 
the  great  triumph   is  indescribable.     A  heavy  load  was  lifted      toriesand 
from  the  minds  of  the  President  and  his  cabinet.     The  North      TheirEffect 
took  heart,  and  resolved  again  to  prosecute  the   war  with   energy.     The 
name  of  Grant  was  on  every  tongue.     It  was  everywhere  felt  that  he  was 
the  foremost  man  of  the  campaign.      He  was  at  once  made  a  major-general 
in  the  regular  army,  and  a  gold  medal  was  awarded  him  by  Congress. 

Grant's  next  striking  victory  was  at  Chattanooga,  an  important  railway 
centre  in  the  valley  of  the  Tennessee  River,  near  where  it  enters  Alabama. 
South  of  the  town  the  slope  of  Lookout  Mountain  rises  to  a  height  of 
2000  feet  above  sea-level.  Two  miles  to  the  east  rises  Missionary  Ridge, 
500  feet  high.  Both  Lookout  Mountain  and  Missionary  Ridge  were 
occupied  by  the  army  of  General  Bragg,  and  his  commanding  position, 
strengthened  by  fortifications,  was  considered  by  him  impregnable. 

The  disastrous  battle  of  Chickamauga,   in  September,   1863,  had  left 
the  Union  armies  in  East  Tennessee  in  a  perilous  situation.    Chickamauga 
General  Thomas,  in  Chattanooga,  was  hemmed  in  by  the  Con-      and  Chat- 
federate  forces,  his  line  of  supplies  was  endangered,  and  his 
men  and  horses  were  almost  starving.     The  army  was  on  quarter  rations, 


454  GRANT  AND  LEE  AND  THE  CIVIL   WAR 

Ammunition  was  almost  exhausted,  and  the  troops  were  short  of  clothing. 
Thousands  of  army  mules,  worn  out  and  starved,  lay  dead  along  the  miry 
roads.  Chattanooga,  occupied  by  the  Union  army,  was  too  strongly  fortified 
for  Bragg  to  take  by  storm,  but  every  day  shells  from  his  batteries  upon 
the  heights  were  thrown  into  the  town.  This  was  the  situation  when  Grant, 
stiff  and  sore  from  a  recent  accident,  arrived  at  Nashville,  on  his  way  to 
direct  the  campaign  in  East  Tennessee. 

"  Hold  Chattanooga  at  all  hazards.  I  will  be  there  as  soon  as  possible," 
he  telegraphed  from  Nashville  to  General  Thomas.  "  We  will  hold  the 
town  until  we  starve,"  was  the  brave  reply. 

Grant's  movements  were  rapid  and  decisive.  He  ordered  the  troops  to 
be  concentrated  at  Chattanooga;  he  fought  a  battle  at  Wauhatchie,  in 
Lookout  Valley,  which  broke  Bragg's  hold  on  the  river  below  Chattanooga 
and  shortened  the  Union  line  of  supplies  ;  and  by  his  prompt  and  vigorous 
preparation  for  effective  action  he  soon  had  his  troops  lifted  out  of  the 
demoralized  condition  in  which  they  had  sunk  after  the  defeat  of  Chicka- 
mauga.  One  month  after  his  arrival  were  fought  the  memorable  battles  of 
Lookout  Mountain  and  Missionary  Ridge,  by  which  the  Confederate  troops 
Lookout  Mount-  were  driven  out  of  Tennessee,  their  hold  on  the  country  was 
ain  and  Mis-  broken  up,  and  a  large  number  of  prisoners  and  guns  were  cap- 
sionary  Ridge  turec}  Nothing  in  the  history  of  war  is  more  inspiring  than 
the  impetuous  bravery  with  which  the  Union  troops  fought  their  way  up 
the  steep  mountain  sides,  bristling  with  cannon,  and  drove  the  Confederate 
troops  out  of  their  works  at  the  point  of  the  bayonet.  An  officer  of  Gen- 
eral Bragg's  staff  afterward  declared  that  they  considered  their  position 
perfectly  impregnable,  and  that  when  they  saw  the  Union  troops,  after  cap- 
turing their  rifle-pits  at  the  base,  coming  up  the  craggy  mountain  toward 
their  headquarters,  they  could  scarcely  credit  their  eyes,  and  thought  that 
every  man  of  them  must  be  drunk.  Histopy  has  no  parallel  for  sublimity 
and  picturesqueness  of  effect,  while  the  consequences,  which  were  the 
division  of  the  Confederacy  in  the  East,  were  inestimable. 

After  Grant's  success  in  Tennessee,  the  popular  demand  that  he  should 
be  put  at  the  head   of  all  the  armies  became  irresistible.      In  Virginia  the 
magnificent  Army  of  the  Potomac,  after  two  years  of  fighting, 
Lieutenant-      ^ad  been  barely  able  to  turn  back  from  the  North  the  tide  of 
General  and       Confederate  invasion,   and  was  apparently  as  far  as  ever  from 
caPturmg    Richmond.       In    the    West,    on    the     other    hand, 
Grant's  armies   had  won  victory  after  victory,  had  driven  the 
opposing   forces   out  of  Kentucky    and   Tennessee,   had   taken   Vicksburg, 
opened  up  the  Mississippi,  and  divided  the  Confederacy  in  both  the  West 


GENERAL   LEE'S    INVASION    OF  THE    NORTH 

The  Confederate  army  under  General  Lee  twice  invaded  the  North.     The  first  invasion  was  brought  to  a  disastrous  end  bv  th< 
of  Amietam,  September  17    1862.     The  second  invasion  ended  with  greater  disaster  at^ettysburg,'  July  '"3    1863 
Gettysburg  was  the  greatest  and  Antietam  the  bloodiest  battles  of  the  war. 


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GRANT  AND  LEE  AND  THE  CIVIL  WAR  457 

and  the  East.  In  response  to  the  call  for  Grant,  Congress  revived  the  grade 
of  lieutenant-general,  which  had  been  held  by  only  one  commander,  Scott, 
since  the  time  of  Washington  ;  and  the  hero  of  Fort  Donelson,  Vicksburg, 
and  Chattanooga  was  nominated  to  this  rank  by  the  President,  confirmed 
by  the  Senate,  and  placed  in  command  of  all  the  armies  of  the  nation. 

The  relief  of  President  Lincoln  at  having  such  a  man  in  command  was 
very  great.  "  Grant  is  the  first  general  I've  had,"  he  remarked  to  a  friend. 
"You  know  how  it  has  been  with  all  the  rest.  As  soon  as  I  put  a  man  in 
command  of  the  army,  he  would  come  to  me  with  a  plan,  and  about  as  much 
as  say,  'Now,  I  don't  believe  I  can  do  it,  but  if  you  say  so  I'll  try  it  on,'  and 
so  put  the  responsibility  of  success  or  failure  upon  me.  They  all  wanted 
me  to  be  the  general.  Now,  it  isn't  so  with  Grant.  He  hasn't  told  me  what 
his  plans  are.  I  don't  know,  and  I  don't  want  to  know.  I  am  glad  to  find  a 
man  who  can  go  ahead  without  me." 

Never  were  the  persistent  courage,  the  determined  purpose,  which  formed 
the  foundation  of  Grant's  character,  more  clearly  brought  out  than  in  the  Vir- 
ginia campaign  of   1864,  in  which  he  commanded;  and  never   The  Virginia 
were  they  more   needed.     Well  did  he  know  that  no  single      Campain  of 
triumph,  however  brilliant,  would  suffice.      He  saw  plainly  that       l864-6s 
nothing  but  "  hammering   away  "  would  avail.      The  stone  wall  of  the  Con- 
federacy had  too  broad  and  firm  a  base  to  be  suddenly  overturned  ;  it  had 
to  be  slowly  reduced  to  powder. 

During  the  anxious  days  which  followed  the  battle  of  the  Wilderness, 
Frank  B.  Carpenter,  the  artist,  relates  that  he  asked  President  Lincoln, 
"  How  does  Grant  impress  you  as  compared  with  other  generals  ?" 

"The  great  thing  about  him,"  said  the  President,  "is  cool  persistency 
of  purpose.  He  is  not  easily  excited,  and  he  has  the  grip  of  a  bull-dog. 
When  he  once  gets  his  teeth  in,  nothing  can  shake  him  off" 

His  great  opponent,  Lee,  saw  and  felt  the  same  quality.  When,  after 
days  of  indecisive  battle,  the  fighting  in  the  Wilderness  came  to  a  pause,  it 
was  believed  in  the  Confederate  lines  that  the  Union  troops  were  falling 
back.  General  Gordon  said  to  Lee, — 

"  I  think  there  is  no  doubt  that  Grant  is  retreating." 

The  Confederate  chief  knew  better.      He  shook  his  head. 

"You  are  mistaken,"  he  replied  earnestly, — "quite  mistaken.  Grant  is 
not  retreating  ;  he  is  not  a  retreating  man" 

The  battles  of  Spottsylvania  and  North  Anna  followed,  and  then  came 
the  disastrous  affair  at  Cold  Harbor.  Then  Grant  changed  his  base  to  James 
river  and  attacked  Petersburg.  Slowly  but  surely  the  Union  lines  closed 
in.  "  Falling  back  "  on  the  Union  side  had  gone  out  of  fashion.  South  or 


458  GRANT  AND  LEE  AND  THE  CIVIL   WAR 

North,  all   could   see    that  now  a  steady  resistless  force  was   back  of   the 
Union  armies,  pushing  them  ever  on  toward  Richmond. 

Grant's  losses  in  the  final  campaign  were  heavy,  but  Lee's  slender 
resources  were  wrecked  in  a  much  more  serious  proportion  ;  and  for  the 
Confederates  no  recruiting  was  possible.  Their  dead,  who  lay  so  thickly 
beneath  the  fields,  were  the  children  of  the  soil,  and  there  were  none  to 
i-eplace  them.  In  some  cases  whole  families  were  destroyed;  but  the  sur- 
vivors still  fought  on.  In  the  Confederate  lines  around 
TThf War*  Petersburg  there  was  often  absolute  destitution.  An  officer 
who  was  there  testified,  shortly  after  the  end  of  the  struggle, 
that  every  cat  and  dog  for  miles  around  had  been  caught  and  eaten.  Grant 
was  pressing  onward  ;  Sherman's  march  through  Georgia  and  the  Carolinas 
had  proved  that  the  Confederacy  was  an  egg-shell ;  Sheridan's  splendid 
cavalry  was  ever  hovering  round  the  last  defenders  of  the  bars  and  stripes. 
Grant  saw  that  all  was  over,  and  on  April  7,  -T865,  he  wrote  that  memorable 
letter  calling  upon  Lee  to  surrender  and  bring  the  war  to  an  end.  Lee, 
whose  army  was  cut  off  beyond  possibility  of  escape,  was  obliged  to  con- 
sent, and  the  terrible  four  years'  conflict  ceased. 

We  have  told  the  chief  incidents  in  the  career  as  a  soldier  of  the  great 
Union  general ;  we  have  now  to  deal  with  that  of  his  equally  great  oppo- 
nent in  the  final  year  of  the  war,  the  brilliant  commander  of  the  Con- 
federate forces,  General  Robert  E.  Lee. 

Of  all  the  men  whose  character  and  ability  were  developed  in  the  Civil 

War,  there  was  perhaps  not  one  in  either  army  whose  greatness  is  more 

generally  acknowledged  than  that  of  the  man  just  named.      His  ability  as 

a  soldier  and  his  character  as  a  man  are  alike   appreciated ;  and   while   it 

is   natural    that   men    of  the    North    should    be   unwilling   to 

General  Lee      condone    his    taking    up    arms    against   the    government,    yet 

that  has  not  prevented  their  doing  full  justice  to  his  greatness. 

It  is  not  too  much  to  say  that  General  Lee  is  recognized,  both  North  and 

South,  as  one  of  the  greatest  soldiers,  and  one  of  the   ablest  and   purest 

men,  that  America  has  produced. 

Lee,  like  Grant,  was  a  graduate  of  West  Point  and  had  seen  service  in 
the  Mexican  war,  in  which  he  won  high  honor.  It  was  he  who,  when  John 
Brown  made  his  raid  against  Harper's  Ferry,  was  despatched  with  a  body 
of  troops  for  his  capture.  The  raiders  had  entrenched  themselves  in  the 
engine  house  of  the  arsenal,  but  Lee  quickly  battered  down  the  door,  cap- 
tured them,  and  turned  them  over  to  the  civil  authorities. 

Lee,  the  son  of  "  Light  Horse  Harry  Lee,"  a  famous  general  of  the 
Revolutionary  War,  cherished  an  attachment  to  the  Union  which  his  father 


GRANT  AND  LEE  AND  THE  CIVIL   WAR  459 

had  helped  him  to  form,  and  at  the  breaking  out  of  the  Civil  War  was  in  great 
doubt  as  to  what  course  he  should  take.  He  disapproved  of  secession,  but 
was  thoroughly  pervaded  with  the  idea  of  loyalty  to  his  state, — an  idea 
which  was  almost  universal  in  the  South,  though  not  enter- 
tained by  the  people  of  the  North.  He  had  great  difficulty 
in  arriving  at  a  decision  ;  but  when  at  last  Virginia  adopted 
an  ordinance  of  secession,  he  resigned  his  commission  in  the  United  States 
army.  Writing  to  his  sister,  he  said,  "  Though  I  recognize  no  necessity  for 
this  state  of  things,  and  would  have  forborne  and  pleaded  to  the  end  for 
redress  of  grievances,  yet  in  my  own  person  I  had  to  meet  the  question 
whether  I  should  take  part  against  my  native  state.  With  all  my  devotion 
to  the  Union,  and  the  feeling  of  loyalty  and  duty  as  an  American  citizen, 
I  have  not  been  able  to  make  up  my  mind  to  raise  my  hand  against  my 
relatives,  my  children,  my  home.  I  have  therefore  resigned  my  commis- 
sion in  the  army,  and,  save  in  defence  of  my  native  state,  I  hope  I  may 
never  be  called  upon  to  draw  my  sword." 

It  was  not  a  case  in  which  a  soldier  who  believed  in  state  supremacy 
could  long  hesitate.  Virginia  was  invaded,  and  Lee  drew  his  sword  "  in 
defence  of  his  native  state,"  his  first  service  being  as  brigadier-general 
in  Northwestern  Virginia,  where  he  was  opposed  to  General  Rosecrans. 
Here  no  important  battle  was  fought,  and  in  the  latter  part  of  Lee  in  Com- 
1861  he  was  sent  to  the  coast  of  North  Carolina,  where  he  mandat  Rich- 
planned  the  defences  which  were  held  good  against  Union 
attack  until  the  last  year  of  the  war.  After  the  wounding  of  General  J.  E. 
Johnston  at  Fair  Oaks,  Lee  was  called  to  the  command  of  the  forces  at 
Richmond,  and  on  June  3,  1862,  took  charge  of  the  army  defending  the 
Confederate  capital. 

The  task  before  him  was  no  light  one.     McClellan  lay  before  Richmond 
with  a  powerful  and  well-appointed  army,  and  that  city  was  in  considerable 
danger  of  capture.      B  jt  the  generals  opposed  to  each  other  were  of  very  dif- 
ferent calibre.      McClellan  was  of  the  cautious  and  deliberate  order  ;  Lee  was 
one  of  those  ready  to  dare  all  "  on  the  hazard  of  a  die."     On  June  26th  he 
made  a  vigorous  assault  on  the   Union  army,  and  continued  it 
with  unceasing  persistence  day  after  day  for  six  days,  driving      pi\^    *y  * 
McClellan  and  his  men  steadily  backward.     On  the  final  day, 
July  ist,  the  Union  army,  strongly  posted  on   Malvern   Hill,  defeated  Lee, 
who   suffered  heavy  loss.      But   McClellan   continued   to   retreat   until   the 
James  River  was  reached  and  the  siege  of  Richmond  abandoned. 

A  few  months -passed,  and  then,  with  a  sudden  and  rapid  sweep  north, 
Lee  fell  upon  the  large  army  which  had  been  gathered  under  General  Pope, 


460  GRANT  AND  LEE  AND  THE  CIVIL  WAR. 

on  the  old  battlefield  of  Bull  Run.  Here  a  terrible  struggle  took  place, 
ending  in  the  disastrous  defeat  of  Pope.  In  this  bloody  battle  the  Unionists 
lost  25,000  men,  of  whom  9,000  were  made  prisoners.  The  Confederates 
lost  about  15,000.  As  the  defeated  army  had  fallen  back  on  Washington, 
that  city  was  safe  against  assault,  and  on  September  4th,  with  another  of 
his  brilliant  and  rapid  movements,  Lee  marched  his  army  into  Maryland, 
hoping  that  this  State  would  rise  in  his  support. 

He  was  disappointed  in  this ;  the  M arylanders  proved  staunch  for  the 
Union  ;  but  one  great  advantage  was  gained  in  the  capture  of  Harper's 
Ferry  by  Stonewall  Jackson,  with  nearly  12,000  prisoners  and  immense 
quantities  of  munitions  of  war.  It  was  a  bloodless  victory,  as  valuable  in  its 
results  for  the  Confederacy  as  had  been  the  sanguinary  battle  of  Bull  Run. 
A  few  days  later,  on  September  iyth,  the  two  late  opponents,  McClellan  and 
Lee,  met  in  conflict  at  Antietam,  in  the  most  bloody  battle,  for 
STnd  Antietam"  t^e  numDers  engaged,  of  the  war.  Lee  had  taken  a  dangerous 
risk  in  weakening  his  army  to  despatch  Jackson  against 
Harper's  Ferry.  But  the  alert  Jackson  was  back  again,  and  the  Confederates 
had  70,000  men  to  oppose  to  the  80,000  under  McClellan.  The  result  was  in 
a  measure  a  drawn  battle,  but  Lee  was  so  severely  handled  that  he  did  not 
deem  it  safe  to  wait  for  a  renewal  of  the  conflict,  and  withdrew  across  the 
Potomac.  The  failure  of  McClellan  to  pursue  with  energy  brought  his 
career  to  an  end.  He  was  removed  from  command  by  the  government  and 
replaced  by  General  Burnside. 

It  cannot  be  said  that  the  change  of  commanders  was  a  successful  one. 

Burnside  attacked  the  vigilant  Lee  at  Fredericksburg,  on  December  i3th, 

and  met  with  one  of  the  most  disastrous  defeats  of  the  war,  losing  nearly 

14,000  men  to  a  Confederate  loss  of  5,000.     General  Hooker,  who  succeeded 

Fredericksburg    ^^m>  met    w^^   a    similar    defeat.      Supplied  with   a    splendid 

And  Chancel-    army,  over  100,000  strong,  he  attacked  Lee  at  Chancellorsville 

on   May  3,  1863,  and  met  with   a    terrible    repulse,  through  a 

brilliant  flank  movement  executed  by  Stonewall  Jackson,  losing  over  i  7,000 

men.     The  Confederates  had  a  loss,  not  less  severe,  this  being  the  death  of 

Jackson,  their  most  brilliant  leader  after  Lee. 

His  great  successes  at  Fredericksburg  and  Chancellorsville  led  Lee  to 
venture  upon  a  daring  but  dangerous  movement,  an  invasion  of  the  North  ; 
one  which,  if  successful,  might  have  placed  Philadelphia,  Baltimore,  and 
Washington  in  his  hands,  but  which,  if  unsuccessful,  would  leave  him  in  a 
very  critical  position. 

It  was,  as  all  readers  know,  unsuccessful.  General  Meade,  who  replaced 
Hooker  in  command,  followed  the  Confederates  north  with  he  utmost 


GRANT  AND  LEE  AND  THE  CIVIL   WAR  461 

haste,  and  placed  himself  across  their  path  at  Gettysburg,  in  western  Penn- 
sylvania.    On  July  ist,  the  advance  columns  of  the  two  armies 
met,  and  engaged  in  a  preliminary  struggle,  which  ended  in  a   1 
repulse  of  the  Union  forces.     These  fell  back  and  took  up  a 
strong  position   on   Cemetery   Ridge,  where    during   the  night  they  were 
strongly  reinforced  by  the  troops  hurrying  up  from  the  south.      During  the 
next  two  days  the  Union  army  fought  on  the  defensive,  Lee  making  vigor- 
ous ouslaughts  upon  it  and  fighting  desperately  but  unsuccessfully  to  break 
Meade's  line   or  seize   some   commanding  point.     The  end  of  this  fierce 
struggle — which  is  ranked  among  the  decisive  battles  of  the  world — came 
on    the    3d,  when     Lee    launched    a    powerful  column,  15,000  The  Union  Vic- 
strong,  under  General  Pickett,  against  the   Union  centre.      It      toryatQet- 
ended  in  a  repulse,   almost  an  annihilation,   of  the  charging      tysburs 
force,  and  the  great  battle  was  at   an   end.     The   next   day  Lee  retreated. 
He  had  lost  in  all  about  30,000  men.     The   Union  loss  aggregated  about 
23,000. 

The  4th  of  July,  1863,  was  in  its  way  as  great  a  day  for  the  American 
Union  as  the  4th  of  July,  1776,  for  it  was  the  great  turning  point  in  the 
war.  On  this  day  Grant  took  possession  of  Vicksburg,  with  30,000 
prisoners,  and  cut  the  Confederacy  in  two.  And  on  the  same  day  Lee 
began  his  retreat,  disastrously  beaten  in  his  last  act  of  offensive  warfare. 
During  the  remainder  of  his  career  he  was  to  stand  on  the 
defence,  until  driven  to  bay  and  forced  to  surrender  by  the 'Thie8^thof  July' 
hammer-like  blows  of  "  Unconditional  surrender  Grant." 

But  while   brilliant   in   offensive  war,  Lee  was   in   his  true   element  in 
defence,  and  never  has  greater  skill  and  ability,  or  more  indomitable  resis- 
ance,   been   shown   than    in    his    struggle   against   his   vigorous   adversary. 
Grant  was  appointed  commander-in-chief  of  the  Union  armies,  on  March  I, 
1864.     Having  sent  Sherman  to  conduct  a  campaign  in  the  South,  he  himself, 
on  May  4  and  5,  crossed  the  Rapidan  River  for  a  direct  advance  on  Rich- 
mond.   A  campaign  of  forty-three  days  followed,  in  which  more  than  100,000 
men,  frequently  reinforced,  were  engaged  on  either  side.    Grant   The  Qreat 
.came  first  into  encounter  with  Lee  in  the  Wilderness,  near  the      struggle  for 
scene  of  Hooker's  defeat  a  year  before.      Here,  after  two  days 
of  terrible  slaughter,  the  battle  ended  without  decided  advantage  to  either 
side,  though  the  Union  loss  was  double  that  of  the  Confederates. 

Finding  Lee's  position  impregnable,  Grant  advanced  by  a  flank  move- 
ment to  Spottsylvania  Court  House.      Here,  on   May  nth,  Hancock,  by  a 
desperate  assault, 'captured  Generals  Johnson  and  E.  H.  Stewart,  with  3000 
men  and  30  guns,  while  Lee  himself  barely  escaped.     But  no  fighting,  how- 
26 


462  GRANT  AND  LEE  AND  THE  CIVIL   WAR 

ever  desperate,  could  carry  Lee's  works.  Sheridan  with  his  cavalry  now 
made  a  dashing  raid  toward  Richmond.  He  fought  the  Confederate  cavalry, 
killed  their  ablest  general,  J.  E.  B.  Stuart,  and  returned,  having  suffered  little 
damage,  to  Grant.  On  May  i7th,  Grant,  having  executed  another  flank 
movement,  reached  the  North  Anna  River.  But  Lee  had  fallen  back  with 
his  usual  celerity,  and  the  advancing  army  found  itself  again  in  face  of 
strong  entrenchments.  As  a  vigorous  attack  failed  to  carry  Lee's  works, 
Grant  made  a  third  flank  march,  which  brought  him  to  the  vicinity  of 
Richmond. 

Here  once  more  he  found  his  indefatigable  opponent  in  his  front, 
very  strongly  posted  at  Cold  Harbor.  Grant,  perhaps  incensed  at  seeing 
this  man  always  blocking  up  his  road,  hurled  his  tried  troops  upon 
the  impregnable  works  of  the  enemy.  It  was  a  vain  effort,  leading  only  to 
dreadful  slaughter.  The  Unionists  lost  in  this  hopeless  affair  over  10,000 
in  killed  and  wounded,  while  the  Confederates  escaped  practically  with- 
out loss. 

Grant  now  executed  the  most  promising  of  his  flank  movements.      He 

secretly  crossed  the   James   River  about  June   I5th  and  made  a  dash   on 

Petersburg,  hoping  to  seize  the  railroads  leading  south  and  to 

on  Petersburg  cut  t^le  ^ne  °^  supply  of  Richmond.   But  unforeseen  delays  and 

strong  resistance  enabled  Lee  to  throw  a  force  of  his  veterans 

into  the  town,  and  the  movement    failed.     And    now  for  months  it  was  a 

question   of  attack  and  defence.      Both   sides  threw  up  entrenchments  of 

enormous  strength,  and  the  following  fall  and  winter  were  occupied  in  an 

incessant    artillery  duel,  marked   by  a  few  assaults,  which    had    little  effect 

other  than  that  of  loss  of  life. 

But  during  all  this  time  Lee's  army  was  weakening,  while  that  of 
Grant  was  kept  in  full  strength.  At  the  end  of  March,  1865,  the  final 
events  of  the  great  struggle  were  at  hand.  Grant  sent  Warren  and  Sheridan 
to  the  south  of  Petersburg,  to  cut  the  Danville  and  Southside  Railroads, 
Lee's  avenues  of  supply.  On  April  ist  the  Confederate  right  wing  was 
encountered  and  defeated  at  Five  Forks,  and  on  the  following  day  the  whole 
line  of  works  defending  Petersburg  was  successfully  assailed. 

Richmond  could  no  longer  be  held.      Lee  evacuated  it  that  night,  and 

retreated  towards  Danville  with  about  35,000  men.      But  the 

Conflict  Union    cavalry   under  Sheridan   pursued   with  such   celerity 

that  escape  was  cut  off,  and  the  Confederates  were  surrounded 

at  Appomattox  Court  House,  and  forced  to  surrender  on  April  9,  1865. 

Lee  had  made  for  himself  a  world-wide  reputation.  While  the  bull- 
dog persistence  of  Grant  had  enabled  him  to  crush  army  after  army  of  the 


GKANT  AND  LEE  AND  THE  CIVIL  WAR  463 

Confederacy,  Lee  had  shown  himself  one  of  the  most  brilliant  of  generals, 
successful  in  all  his  assaults  except  at  Gettysburg,  and  almost  without  a 
peer  in  defensive  warfare.  Only  the  utter  exhaustion  of  the  country  behind 
him  and  the  slow  grinding  of  his  army  into  fragments  brought  final  success 
to  his  opponents. 

We  can  only  refer  briefly  to  the  careers  of  some  of  the  abler  sub- 
ordinate commanders  in  the  war.  First  among  them  was  Sherman,  whose 
exploits  in  great  measure  place  him  on  a  level  with  Grant  and  Lee. 
In  truth,  there  was  no  more  brilliant  operation  in  the  entire  war  than  his 
famous  "March  through  Georgia." 

This  striking  event  was  the  culmination  of  a  series  of  successful  battles 
and  flank  movements,  by  which  Johnston  was  gradually    forced  back  from 
Chattanooga  to  Atlanta.     Here  the  able  Johnston  was  removed  and  replaced 
by  the  dashing   but    reckless  Hood,  who    attacked   Sherman    Sherman's 
fiercely,  but  only  to  meet  a  disastrous  repulse.     A  final  flank      March  on 
movement,  which  cut  off  Hood's  sources  of  supply,  forced  him      Atlanta 
to  evacuate   Atlanta,  which   Sherman  occupied  on  September   i,  1864.      It 
was  the  most  brilliant  success  of  the  year,  and  Sherman  became  the  hero  of 
the  hour.      Hood,  finding  that  he  could  do  nothing  there,  made  a  dash  into 
Tennessee,  hoping  to  draw  Sherman  after  him  for  the  defence  of  Nashville. 

Sherman  had  no  intention  of  doing  anything  of  the  kind.  The 
removal  of  Hood  from  his  vicinity  was  just  what  he  wanted,  and  he 
remarked  in  a  chuckling  tone,  "  If  Hood  will  go  to  Tennessee  I  will  be 
glad  to  furnish  him  with  rations  for  the  trip."  What  he  had  ,in  view  was 
something  very  different ;  namely,  to  abandon  his  long  line  of  supplies, 
march  across  Georgia  to  Savannah,  nearly  three  hundred  miles  away,  and 
live  upon  the  country  as  he  went,  while  destroying  one  of  the  richest 
sources  of  Confederate  supply. 

The   Confederate    generals   did    not    dream   of   a  movement   of   such 
unusual   boldness,    and   left   the   field   clear   for   Sherman's   march.      For  a 
month  he  and  his   men   simply  disappeared.      No  one   knew   ^arching 
where  they  were,  or  if  they  were  not  annihilated.     They  had      Through 
plunged  into  the  heart  of  the  Confederacy,  far  away  from  all 
means  of  communication,  and  the  people  of  the  North  could  only  wait  and 
hope.     "  I    know    which    hole    he    went    in    at,"  said    Lincoln    to    anxious 
inquirers,  "  but  I  know  no  more  than  you  at  which  hole  he  will  come  out." 

He  came  out  at  Savannah.  He  had  cut  a  great  swath,  thirty  miles 
wide,  through  Georgia,  his  soldiers  living  off  the  country  and  rendering 
it  incapable  of  furnishing  supplies  for  the  Confederate  armies,  and  on 
December  2$d  he  sent  Lincoln  a  despatch  that  carried  joy  throughout  the 


464  GRANT  AND  LEE  AND  THE  CIVIL   WAR 

North  :  "  I  beg  to  present  you  as  a  Christmas  gift  the  city  of  Savannah, 
with  one  hundred  and  fifty  guns  and  plenty  of  ammunition,  and  about 
twenty-five  thousand  bales  of  cotton." 

The  remainder  of  Sherman's  movement  may  be  briefly  told.  March- 
ing northward,  he  took  Charleston,  which  had  so  long  defied  Union  assault, 
without  a  shot.  Reaching  North  Carolina,  he  found  himself  opposed  again 
Sherman  to  Johnston,  but  before  much  fighting  took  place  the  news  of 

Marches  Lee's    surrender    came,   and    nothing   was    left    for  Johnston 

except  to  yield  up  his  force.  Meanwhile,  Thomas,  who  had 
saved  the  army  at  Chickamauga,  hurried  to  Nashville  to  meet  the  hard- 
fighting  Hood,  and  there  'defeated  him  so  utterly  and  dispersed  his  army 
so  completely  that  it  never  came  together  again. 

There  is  only  one  further  exploit  of  the  Union  generals  that  calls  here 
for  special  mention,  that  of  Sheridan's  famous  ride.  In  1864  Lee  sent 
General  Early  with  20,000  men  to  the  Shenandoah  Valley,  recently  cleared 
General  Early's  °^  ^ts  defenders,  the  purpose  being  to  threaten  Washington 

Raid  on  Wash-  and  possibly  oblige  Grant  to  weaken  his  forces  for  its  defence. 

ington  Success  attended  Early's  movement.   He  invaded  Maryland,  de- 

feated Lew  Wallace  near  Frederick,  and  reached  the  suburbs  of  Washington, 
which  an  immediate  attack  might  have  placed  in  his  hands.  Not  venturing, 
however,  to  attack  the  captial,  he  soon  returned,  with  large  spoils  in  horses 
and  cattle,  to  the  Valley,  where  he  defeated  General  Crook  at  Winchester. 
In  one  respect  this  movement  had  failed.  Grant  was  not  induced  to 
weaken  his  forces  to  any  important  extent.  Had  it  been  Stonewall  Jackson 
in  the  Valley  it  might  have  been  different,  but  he  contented  himself  with 
sending  Sheridan  to  take  care  of  Early.  Sheridan  bided  his  time,  despite 
the  growing  impatience  in  the  country.  Grant  visited  him,  intending  to 
propose  a  plan  of  operations,  but  he  found  that  Sheridan  was  in  full  touch 
with  the  situation,  and  left  him  to  his  own  devices. 

At  length,  in  September,  Early  incautiously  divided  his  command,  and 
Sheridan,  who  was  closely  on  the  watch,  attacked  him,  flanked  him  right 
and  left,  broke  his  lines  in  every  direction,  and  sent  him,  as  he  telegraphed 
"Whirling  to  Washington,  "Whirling  through  Winchester."  "I  have 

Through  never  since  deemed  it  necessary  to  visit  General  Sheridan  be- 

Winchester."  £Qre  g}ving  nim  orders,"  said  Grant  afterwards.  Sheridan 
again  attacked  and  defeated  Early  at  Fisher's  Hill,  driving  him  out  of  the 
valley  and  into  the  gaps  of  the  Blue  Ridge. 

Sometime  afterwards  took  place  the  most  famous  event  in  Sheridan's 
career.  During  an  absence  at  Washington  his  camp  at  Cedar  Creek  was 
surprised  by  Early,  the  men  were  driven  back  in  disorderly  rout,  and  eighteen 


GRANT  AND  LEE  AND  THE  CIVIL   WAR  467 

guns  and  nearly  a  thousand  prisoners  were  lost.  Sheridan,  on  his  way  back 
from  the  capital,  had  stopped  for  the  night  at  Winchester.  On  his  way  to  the 
front  the  next  morning  the  sound  of  distant  guns  came  to  his  ears.  Per- 
ceiving that  a  battle  was  in  progress,  he  rode  forward  at  full  speed.  Soon 
he  began  to  meet  frightened  fugitives,  and  guessed  what  had  happened. 
Taking  off  his  hat,  he  swung  it  in  the  air  as  he  dashed  onward  at  a  gallop, 
shouting,  "Face  the  other  way,  boys;  face  the  other  way.  We're  going 
back  to  lick  them  out  of  their  boots  ! " 

His  words  were  electrical.  The  fugitives  did  "face  the  other  way."  As 
he  came  nearer  and  met  the  retreating  companies  and  regiments,  he  rallied 
them  with  the  same  inspiring  cry.  The  men  turned  back.  The  Confederates, 

who  were  rifling;  their  camp,  were  astounded  to  find  a  routed 

r,  ,        ,     .      Sheridan's  Ride 

army    charging   upon    them.      Dismay    spread    through   their 

ranks,  they  were  thrown  into  disorder,  and  were  soon  in  full  flight,  having 
lost  all  the  captured  guns  and  twenty-four  more,  with  a  heavy  loss  in  killed, 
wounded,  and  prisoners.  Since  that  day  "  Sheridan's  ride  "  has  been  cele- 
brated in  song  and  story  as  the  most  dramatic  incident  of  the  war. 

We  have  told  some  of  the  exciting  events  of  the  conflict  from  the 
Union  side.  The  Confederates  also  had  their  dashing  generals  and  thrilling 
deeds  of  valor.  But  this  chapter  is  already  so  extended  that  we  must  con- 
fine ourselves  to  an  account  of  but  one  in  addition  to  Lee,  the  renowned 
Stonewall  Jackson.  It  is  well  known  how  Thomas  J.  Jackson  got  this  title 
of  honor.  In  the  battle  of  Bull  Run  his  men  stood  so  firm  amid  the 
disordered  fragments  of  other  corps,  that  General  Bee  called  attention  to 
them  :  "  Look  at  those  Virginians  !  They  stand  like  a  stone  wall."  The 
title  of  "  Stonewall"  clung  to  their  leader  until  his  death.  His  most  famous 
work  was  done  in  the  Shenandoah  Valley.  In  March,  1862,  stonewall 
he  retreated  before  Banks  some  forty  miles,  then  suddenly  Jackson  and 
turned  and  with  only  3,500  men  drove  him  back  in  dismay. 
But  his  most  brilliant  exploit  was  in  April,  when  he  whipped  Milroy,  Banks, 
Shields,  and  Fremont,  one  after  another,  in  the  Valley,  and  then  suddenly 
turned,  marched  to  Lee's  aid,  and  helped  to  defeat  McClellan  at  Gaines's 
Mills,  the  first  victory  in  the  memorable  six  days'  fight. 

In  August,  1862,  he  drove  Pope  back  from  the  Rappahannock,  and  by 
stubborn  fighting  held  him  fast  until  Longstreet  could  get  up  to  aid  in  the 
victory  of  the  second  Bull  Run.  We  have  told  of  his  striking  exploit  at 
Harper's  Ferry,  and  how  he  won  the  day  at  Chancellorsville.  Here 
he  was  wounded  by  a  mistaken  volley  from  his  own  men,  was  soon  after  at- 
tacked with  pneumonia,  and  died  on  May  10,  1863.  Thus  fell  the  ablest 
man,  after  Lee,  that  the  great  contest  developed  on  the  Confederate  side. 


CHAPTER   XXXII. 

The  Indian  in  the  Nineteenth  Century 

THE  relation  of  the  American  people  to  the  Indians,  since  the  first 
settlement  of  this  country,  has  been  one  of  conflict,  which  has  been 
almost  incessant  in  some  sections  of  the  land.  By  the  opening  of  the 
nineteenth  century  the  red  men  had  been  driven  back  in  great  measure  from 
the  thirteen  original  states,  but  the  tribes  in  the  west  were  still  frequently 
The  Relation  of  hostile,  and  stood  sternly  in  the  way  of  our  progress  westward. 
Whites  and  We  propose  in  this  chapter  to  describe  the  various  relations, 

both  peaceful  and  warlike,  which  have  existed  between  the 
whites  and  the  red  men  during  the  century  with  which  we  are  here  concerned. 
The  close  of  the  Revolutionary  War  brought  only  a  partial  cessation 
of  the  Indian  warfare.  The  red  man  was  by  no  means  disposed  to  give  up 
his  country  without  a  struggle,  and  throughout  the  interior,  in  what  is 
now  Indiana,  Illinois,  and  Wisconsin,  and  along  the  Ohio  River,  there  were 
constant  outbreaks,  and  battles  of  great  severity.  The  conflict  in  Indiana 
brought  forward  the  services  of  a  young  lieutenant,  William  Henry  Harrison, 
who  for  many  years  had  much  to  do  with  Indians,  both  as  military  officer 
and  as  governor  of  the  Indian  territory.  In  1811  appeared  one  of  those 
great  Indian  chiefs  whose  abilities  and  influence  are  well  worth  attention 
and  study.  Tecumseh,  a  mighty  warrior  of  mixed  Creek  and  Shawnee 
blood,  was  one  who  dreamt  the  dream  of  freeing  his  people.  With  elo- 
quence and  courage  he  urged  them  on,  by  skill  he  combined  the  tribes  in  a 
new  alliance,  and,  encouraged  by  British  influence,  he  looked  forward  to  a 
great  success.  While  he  was  seeking  to  draw  the  Southern  Indians  into  his 
scheme,  his  brother  rashly  joined  battle  with  General  Harrison,  and  was 
utterly  defeated  in  the  fight  which  gained  for  Harrison  the  title  of  Old 
Tippecanoe.  Disappointed  and  disheartened  at  this  destruction  of  his  life- 
work,  Tecumseh  threw  all  his  great  influence  on  the  British  side  in  the  WTar 

of  1812,  in  which  he  dealt  much  destruction  to  the  United 
HTelumsehd  States  tro°Ps-  At  Sandusky  and  Detroit  and  Chicago,  and  at 

other  less  important  forts,  the  Indian  power  was  severely  felt ; 
but  at  Terre  Haute  the  young  captain  Zachary  Taylor  met  the  savages 
with  such  courage  and  readiness  of  resources  that  they  were  finally  repulsed. 
468 


THE  INDIAN  IN  THE  NINETEENTH  CENTURY  469 

But  rarely  did  a  similar  good  fortune  befall  our  troops  ;  and  it  was  not  until 
after  Commodore  Perry  won  victory  for  us  at  Lake  Erie,  that  Tecumseh 
himself  was  killed,  and  the  twenty-five  hundred  Indians  of  his  force  were 
finally  scattered,  in  the  great  fight  of  the  Thames  River,  where  our  troops 
were  commanded  by  William  Henry  Harrison  and  Richard  M.  Johnson, 
afterward  President  and  Vice-President  of  the  United  States.  For  a  little 
time  the  Northwest  had  peace.  But  in  the  South  the  warfare  was  not  over. 
Tecumseh  had  stirred  up  the  Creeks  and  Seminoles  against  the  whites,  and 
throughout  Alabama,  Georgia,  and  Northern  Florida  the  Creek  War  raged 
with  all  its  horrid  accompaniments  until  1814  ;  even  the  redoubtable  Andrew 
Jackson  could  not  conquer  the  brave  Creeks  until  they  were  almost  extermi- 
nated, and  then  a  small  remnant  remained  in  the  swamps  of  Florida  to  be 
heard  of  at  a  later  time. 

Before  the  new  government  of  the  United  States  was  fully  upon  its 
feet  it  recognized  the  necessity  and  duty  of  caring  for  its  Indian  population. 
In  1775,  a  year  before  the  Declaration  of  Independence,  the  Continental 
Congress  divided  the  Indians  into  three  departments,  northern,  middle  and 
southern,  each  under  the  care  o(  three  or  more  commissioners,  among  whom 
we  find  no  less  personages  than  Oliver  Wolcott,  Philip  Schuyler,  Patrick 
Henry  and  Benjamin  Franklin.  As  early  as  1832  the  young: 

.         ,  ,     •        ir  r  -i  •  TV  i  i  National 

nation  found   itself  confronted  with  a  serious  Indian  problem,       pericd 
created  a  separate  bureau  for  the  charge  of  the  red  men,  and 
inaugurated   a  definite  policy  of  treatment.     Speaking  in  general,  we  have 
altered  this  policy  three  times.     As  a  matter  of  fact,  we  have  altered  its 
details,  changed  its  plans,  and  adopted  new  methods  of  management  as  often 
as  changing  administrations  have  changed  the  administrators  of  our  Indian 
affairs.      But  in  the  large,  there  have  been  three  great  steps  in  our  Indian 
policy,  and  these  have  to  some  extent  grown  out  of  our  changing  conditions. 
The  first   plan  was   that  of  the   reservations.      Under  that  system,  as  the 
Indian  land  was  wanted  by  the  white  population,  the  red  man  was  removed 
across  the  Mississippi  and  pushed  step  by  step  still  further  west ;  and  as 
time  went  on  and   the  population  followed  hard  after,  he  was 
eventually  confined  to  designated  tracts.  ^  Yet  dispite  the  fact      policy 
that  these  tracts  were    absolutely  guaranteed  to  him,  he  was 
driven  off  them  again  and  again  as  the  farmer  or  the  miner  demanded  the 
land.      In   time   anew  policy  was   attempted,   or  rather  an   old  policy  was 
revived,  that  of  concentrating  the  whole  body  of  Indians  into  one  state  or 
territory,  but  the  obvious  impossibility  of  that  scheme  soon  brought  it  to  an 
end.      Less  than  thirty  years  ago  the   present   plan  took  its  place,  that  of 
education  and  eventual  absorption. 


470 


THE  INDIAN  IN  THE  NINETEENTH  CENTURY 


In  1830  the  country  seemed  to  stretch  beyond  any  possible  need  of  the 
young  nation,  lusty  as  it  was,  and  the  wide  wilderness  of  the  Rocky  Moun- 
tains promised  to  furnish  hunting  grounds  for  all  time.  The  Mississippi 
Valley  and  the  Northwest  were  still  unsettled,  but  in  the  South  the  Five 
Nations  were  greatly  in  the  way  of  their  white  neighbors,  and  the  work  of  the 
removal  of  the  latter  beyond  the  Mississippi  was  begun.  Under  President 
Monroe  several  treaties  were  made  with  those  tribes — the  Creeks,  Chero- 
kees,  Choctaws,  Chickasaws  and  Seminoles — by  which,  one  after  another, 
Removal  of  the  they  ceded  their  lands  to  the  government,  and  took  in  ex- 
Southern  change  the  country  now  known  as  the  Indian  Territory. 

They  were  already  somewhat  advanced  in  civilization,  with 
leaders  combining  in  blood  and  brain  the  Indian  astuteness  and  the  white 
man's  experience  and  education.  John  Ross,  a  half-breed  chief  of  the 
Cherokees,  of  unusual  ability,  brought  about  the  removal  under  conditions 
more  favorable  than  often  occurred.  He  was  bitterly  opposed  by  full  half 
the  Indians,  and  it  was  not  without  sufferings  and  losses  of  more  than  one 
kind  that  the  great  southern  league  was  removed  to  the  fair  and  fertile  land 
set  aside  for  them  in  the  far-off  West.  It  was  owing  to  the  sagacity  of 
John  Ross  and  his  associates  that  this  land  *vas  secured  to  them,  in  a  way 
in  which  no  other  land  has  ever  been  secured  to  an  Indian  tribe.  They 
hold  it  to-day  by  patent,  as  secure  in  the  sight  of  the  law  as  an  old  Dutch 
manor  house  or  a  Virginia  plantation,  and  all  the  learning  of  the  highest 
tribunals  has  not  yet  found  the  way  to  evade  or  disregard  these  solemn 
obligations.  To  these  men,  too,  and  to  the  missionaries  who  long  taught 
their  tribes,  do  they  owe  an  effective  form  of  civilization,  and  a  governmental 

polity  which  preserves  for  them  alone,  amongf  all  the  red  men, 

War  with  the       v.  .  .  ,  TM_        c?      .  • '-'  n 

Seminoles  tne  tlt:^e  anc*  tne  state  of  nations.  1  he  Seminoles,  who 
were  of  the  Creek  blood,  were  divided,  some  of  them  going 
west  with  their  brethren,  the  larger  number  of  them  remaining  in  Florida. 
With  these — about  4,000  in  all — under  their  young  and  able  chief,  Osceola, 
the  government  fought  a  seven  years'  war,  costing  many  lives  and  forty 
millions  in  money,  and  did  not  then  succeed  in  removing  all  the  Seminoles 
from  their  much-loved  home. 

A  similar  state  of  affairs  attended  the  removals  in  the  north.  The  sav- 
ages bitterly  opposed  giving  up  their  native  soil,  there  being  in  every  case 
two  parties  in  the  tribe,  one  that  sorrowfully  yielded  to  the  necessity  of  sub- 
mission, and  one  that  indulged  in  the  hopeless  dream  of  successful  resistance. 
Thus  the  Sac  and  Fox  tribe  of  Wisconsin  was  divided,  and  although 
Keokuk  and  one  band  went  peaceably  to  their  new  home  among  the  lowas, 
Black  Hawk  and  his  followers  were  slow  to  depart,  and  were  removed  by 


THE  INDIAN  IN  THE  NINETEENTH  CENTURY  471 

force.     The  Indian  Department  failed  to  furnish  corn  enough  for  the  new 
settlement,  and,  going    to  seek  it  among    the    Winnebagoes,  the    Indians 
came  into  collision  with  the  government.     Thereafter  ensued  a  series  of 
misunderstandings,  and  consequent  fights,  resulting  in  great    Hostilities  with 
alarm  among  the  whites  and  destruction  to  the  Indians.     The      Northern 
story  is  the  same  story,  almost  to  details,  that  has  been   fre-      Tnbes 
quently  seen   since  that  time.     After  the  fashion   above  described  all  the 
removals  have  proceeded,  the  cause  ever  the  same,  the  white  man's  greed 
and  the  ferocity  of  the  wronged  and  infuriated  savage. 

It  is  useless  and  impossible  to  give  the  details  of  all  the  various  tribes 
that  have  been  pushed  about  in  the  manner  described.  In  1830  the  East 
was  already  crowding  toward  the  West,  and  every  succeeding  decade  saw 
the  frontier  moved  onward  with  giant  strides.  Everywhere  the  Indian  was 
an  undesirable  neighbor,  and  when,  in  1849,  the  discovery  of  gold  began  to 
create  a  new  nation  on  the  Pacific  slope,  a  pressure  began  from  that  side 
also,  and  the  intervening  deserts  became  a  thoroughfare  for  the  pilgrims  of 
fortune  and  the  lovers  of  adventure.  From  year  to  year  the  United  States 
made  fresh  treaties  with  the  tribes;  those  in  the  East  were  Treatment  of 
gone  already,  those  in  the  interior  were  following  fast,  and  the  Western 
there  had  arisen  the  new  necessity  of  dealing  with  those  in  Indlans 
the  far  West.  One  tribe  after  another  would  be  planted  on  a  reservation 
millions  of  acres  in  extent  and  apparently  far  beyond  the  home  of  civiliza- 
tion, and  almost  in  a  twelvemonth  the  settler  would  be  upon  its  border, 
demanding  its  broad  acres.  The  reservations  were  altered,  reduced,  taken 
away  altogether,  at  the  pleasure  of  the  government,  with  little  regard  to 
the  rights  or  wishes  of  the  Indian.  Usually  this  brought  about  fighting, 
and  it  produced  a  state  of  permanent  discontent  that  wrought  harm  for 
both  settler  and  savage.  The  Indian  grew  daily  more  and  more  treacherous 
and  constantly  more  cruel.  The  white  settler  was  daily  in  greater  danger, 
and  constantly  more  eager  for  revenge. 

A   new  complication  entered  into  the  problem.     The  game  was  fast 
disappearing,  and  with  it  the  subsistence  of  the  Indian.      It  became  neces- 
sary for  the  government  to  furnish  rations  and  clothes,  lest  he  should  starve 
and  freeze.   Cheating  was  the  rule  and  deception  the  every-day  experience  of 
these  savages.     In  1795  General  Wayne  gained  the  nickname 
of  General  To-morrow,  so  slow  was  the  government  to  fulfill   ^^ow  "°~ 
his  promises  ;  and  thus  for  more  than  a  hundred  years  it  was 
to-morrow  for  the   Indian.      Exasperated  beyond  endurance,  he  was  ever 
ready  to  retaliate,  and  the  horrors  of  an   Indian  war  constantly  hung  over 
the  pioneer,     During  all  this  period  we  treated  the  Indian  tribes  as  if  they 


472  THE  INDIAN  IN  THE  NINETEENTH  CENTURY 

were  foreign  nations,  and  made  solemn  treaties  with  them,  agreeing  to 
furnish  them  rations  or  marking  the  reservation  bounds.  We  have  made 
more  than  a  thousand  of  these  treaties,  and  General  Sherman  is  the 
authority  for  the  statement  that  we  have  broken  every  one  of  them.  Day 
by  day  the  gluttonous  idleness,  the  loss  of  hope,  the  sense  of  wrong,  and 
the  bitter  feeling  of  contempt  united  to  degrade  the  red  man  as  well  as  to 
madden  him. 

The  fighting  did  not  cease,  for  all  the  promises  or  the  threats  of  the 
government.  But  always,  it  is  credibly  declared,  the  first  cause  of  an  Indian 
outbreak  was  a  wrong  inflicted  upon  some  tribe.  And  always,  in  the  latter 
days  as  in  the  earlier  period,  it  has  meant  one  more  effort  on  the  part  of 
the  old  warriors  to  regain  the  power  they  saw  slipping  away  so  fast. 

Both  these  causes  entered  into  the  awful  Sioux  War  in  Min- 
Th<!s'°uxWar  nesota  m  J862.  Suffering  from  piled-up  wrongs,  smarting 

under  the  loss  of  power,  and  conscious  that  the  Civil  War 
was  their  opportunity,  a  party  of  one  hundred  and  fifty  Sioux  began  the 
most  horrid  massacre  known  for  fifty  years  ;  the  beginning  of  a  struggle 
which  lasted  more  than  a  year,  and  which  was  remarkable  for  the  steadfast 
fidelity  of  the  Christian  Indians,  to  whose  help  and  succor  whole  bodies  of 
white  men  owed  their  lives.  Four  years  later,  in  1866,  the  discovery  of  gold 
in  Montana  caused  the  invasion  of  the  Sioux  reservation,  and  Red  Cloud 
set  about  defending  it.  Scarcely  more  than  thirty  years  old,  but  no  mean 
warrior,  he  fought  the  white  man  long  and  desperately  and  with  the  cunning 
of  his  race. 

This  outbreak  was  scarcely  quieted  when  another  occurred.  As  was  its 
wont,  the  government  forgot  the  promises  of  its  treaty  of  peace,  and  a  small 
band  of  the  Cheyennes  retaliated  with  a  raid  upon  their  white  neighbors. 
General  Sheridan  made  this  the  occasion  he  was  seeking  for  a  war  of  exter- 
mination, and  in  November,  1868,  Lieutenant  Custer  fell  upon  Black  Kettle's 
village  and  after  a  severe  fight  destroyed  the  village,  killing  more  than  a 
hundred  warriors  and  capturing  half  as  many  women  and  children.  The 
next  year  General  Sheridan  ordered  the  Sioux  and  Cheyennes  off  the  hunt- 
ing grounds  the  treaty  had  reserved  to  them,  but  these  were  the  strongest 
Massacre  of  an<^  bravest  of  the  tribes  and  they  resisted  the  order.  A 
General  Cus-  number  of  Civil  War  heroes,  Crook,  Terry,  Custer,  Miles  and 
ter'sCom-  McKenzie,  led  our  troops,  and  among  the  chiefs  whom  they 

met  in  a  long  and  desperate  struggle  were  Crazy  Horse  and 
Spotted  Tail,  notable  warriors  both.  At  the  battle  of  the  Big  Horn,  by 
some  misunderstanding  or  mismanagement,  General  Custer  was  left  with  only 
6,ve  companies  to  meet  nearly  three  thousand  savage  Sioux,  He  fought 


THE  INDIAN  IN  THE  NINETEENTH  CENTURY  473 

desperately  until  the  last,  but  he  was  killed  and  his  command  so  utterly  des- 
troyed that  not  a  single  man  was  left  alive.  The  attempt  to  remove  the 
Modocs  from  California  to  Oregon  in  1872  was  the  signal  for  a  new  war;  and 
a  year  or  two  afterwards  similar  results  followed  when  it  was  attempted  to 
push  the  Nez  Perces  from  the  homes  they  had  sought  in  Oregon  to  a  new 
reservation  in  Idaho.  This  tribe,  under  its  famous  leader,  Chief  Joseph,  was 
hard  to  conquer.  The  military  organization,  the  civilized  method  of  warfare, 
and  the  courage  and  skill  of  the  tribe  were  publicly  complimented  by  Gen- 
erals Sherman,  Howard  and  Gibbons,  who  declared  Chief  Joseph  to  be  one 
of  the  greatest  of  modern  warriors. 

In  1877,  discouraged  by  the  failure  of  our  efforts  to  hold  the  Indians  in 
check,  it  was  determined  by  Secretary  Schurz,  then  in  charge  of  the  Depart- 
ment of  the  Interior,  to  remove  them  all  to  the  western  part  of  the  Indian 
Territory,  where  the  tribes  in  possession  agreed  to  cede  the  necessary  land. 
It  was  hoped  to  create  there  an  Indian  commonwealth,  but  trouble  arose  from 
the  attempt  to  carry  out  the  well-meant  effort.  A  single  story,  the  story  of  the 
Northern  Cheyennes,  will  illustrate  the  wrongs  the  Indian  suffered,  as  well 
as  those  he  infl:  ,ed.  The  Cheyennes,  as  has  been  seen,  were  a  tribe  of 
valiant  warriors  ome  of  them  at  home  in  the  hills  of  the  North,  some 
residing  in  the  hills  of  the  South.  The  Cheyennes,  Arapahoes,  Kiowas 
and  Comanches  were  banded  together  in  a  close  and  common  bond,  and, 
at  first  the  friends  of  the  government,  had  become  frequently  its  enemies, 
by  reason  of  broken  faith,  cruel  treatment,  injustice,  and  downright  wrong. 
That  chronicle  of  misery,  "  A  Century  of  Dishonor,"  contains  forty  pages 
of  facts  taken  from  the  government  records,  which  relate  the  Barbarous 
inexcusable  and  indefensible  treatment  of  the  Cheyenne  tribe  Treatment  of 
by  the  government,  and  their  vain  endurance  of  wrongs,  inter-  the  Cheyennes 
spersed  with  savage  outbreaks,  when  human  nature  could  endure  no  longer. 
It  includes  the  account  of  a  massacre  of  helpless  Indian  women  and  children 
under  a  flag  of  truce  ;  a  war  begun  over  ponies  stolen  from  the  Indians,  and 
sold  in  the  open  market  by  the  whites  in  a  land  where  the  horse  thief  counts 
with  the  murderer  ;  another  incited  by  a  rage  against  a  trader  who  paid  one 
dollar  bills  for  ten  dollar  bills ;  and  tells  of  whole  tracts  of  land  seized  with- 
out compensation  by  the  United  States  itself. 

The  Northern  Cheyennes  had  been  taken  by  force  to  the  Indian  Terri- 
torry,  and  in  its  severe  heat,  with  scant  and  poor  rations,  a  pestilence  came 
npon  them.  Two  thousand  were  sick  at  once,  and  many  died  because  there 
was  not  medicine  enough.  At  last  three  hundred  braves,  old  men  and  young, 
with  their  women  and  children,  broke  away  and,  making  a  raid  through 
Western  Kansas,  sought  their  Nebraska  home.  This  was  not  a  mild  and 


474  THE  INDIAN  IN  THE  NINETEENTH  CENTURY 

peaceable  tribe.  It  was  fierce  and  savage  beyond  most,  and  its  people  were 
wild  with  long  endured  injustice  and  frantic  with  a  nameless  terror.  Three 
How  the  Chey-  times  they  drove  back  the  troops  who  were  sent  to  face  them, 
ennes  were  and,  living  by  plunder,  they  made  a  red  trail  all  through  Kansas, 
until  they  were  finally  captured  in  Nebraska  in  December.  They 
refused  to  go  back  to  the  Indian  Territory,  and  the  department  ordered  them 
to  be  starved  into  submission.  Food  and  fuel  were  taken  from  the  imprisoned 
Indians.  Four  days  they  had  neither  food  nor  fire — and  the  mercury  froze 
at  Fort  Robinson  in  that  month  !  And  when  at  last  two  chiefs  came  out 
under  a  flag  of  truce,  they  were  seized  and  imprisoned.  Then  pandemonium 
broke  loose  inside.  The  Indians  broke  up  the  useless  stoves,  and  fought 
with  the  twisted  iron.  They  brought  out  a  few  hidden  arms,  and,  howling 
like  devils,  they  rushed  out  into  the  night  and  the  snow.  Seven  days  later 
they  were  shot  down  like  dogs. 

Experiences  like  this  soon  ended  the  attempt  to  gather  together  all  our 
Indian  wards,  and  we  returned  to  the  old  plan  of  the  reservations,  but  with 
little  more  certainty  of  peace  than  before.  Again  and  again  starvation  was 
followed  by  fighting,  nameless  outrages  upon  the  Indian  by  cruel  outrages 
upon  the  white  man.  Whether  Apaches  under  Geronimo  in  New  Mexico, 
or  Sioux  in  Dakota,  it  was  the  old  story  over  again.  Thus,  with  constant 
danger  menacing  the  white  settler  from  the  infuriated  savage  Indian,  and 
constant  outrage  upon  the  red  man  by  rapacious  and  cruel  whites,  the 
President  Grant  government  found  a  new  policy  necessary.  This  policy  was 
Adopts  a  New  inaugurated  by  a  strange  and  unusual  sequence  of  events. 
In  1869  a  sharp  difference  arose  between  the  two  Houses  of 
Congress  over  the  appropriations  to  pay  for  eleven  treaties  then  just 
negotiated,  and  the  session  closed  with  no  appropriation  for  the  Indian 
service.  The  necessity  for  some  measure  was  extreme  ;  the  plan  was  devised 
of  a  bill  which  was  passed  at  an  extra  session,  putting  two  millions  of  dollars 
in  the  hands  of  President  Grant,  to  be  used  as  he  saw  fit  for  the  civilization 
and  protection  of  the  Indian.  He  immediately  called  to  his  aid  a  commision 
composed  of  nine  philanthropic  gentlemen  to  overlook  the  affairs  of  the 
Indian  and  advise  him  thereupon.  This  commission  served  without  salary 
and  continues  to  this  day  its  beneficent  work.  Another  valuable  measure 
followed.  At  the  next  Congress  a  law  was  enacted  forbidding  any  more 
treaties  with  Indians,  and  thenceforth  they  became  our  wards ;  not  foreigners 
and  rivals,  as  practically  the  case  before. 

The  war  of  1877  had  indirectly  another  beneficent  result,  most  far-reach- 
ing in  its  consequences.  Among  the  brave  men  who  had  fought  the  Chey- 
ennes  and  Kiowas  and  Comanches,  was  Captain  Richard  H.  Pratt,  who  was 


AMES  G.  BLAINE 


WILLIAM   McKINLEY 


GROVER   CLEVELAND  WILLIAM  J.   BRYAN 

GREAT   AMERICAN    POLITICAL   LEADERS,    LAST   QUARTER    OF   THE    NINETEENTH    CENTURY 


WHITE1AW    REID  JULIAN    HAWTHORNE.  RICHARD    HARDING   DAVIS. 

NOTED   AMERICAN   JOURNALISTS   AND   MAGAZINE   CONTRIBUTORS. 


THE  INDIAN  IN  THE  NINETEENTH  CENTURY  477 

put  in  charge  of  the  prisoners  who  had  been  sent  to  Fort  Marion,  Florida, 
as  a  punishment  worse  than  death.  They  were  the  wildest  and  fiercest 
warriors,  who  had  fought  long  and  desperately.  On  their  way  East  they 
killed  their  guard,  and  repeatedly  tried,  one  and  another,  to  kill  themselves. 
But  Captain  Pratt  was  a  man  of  wonderful  executive  ability,  of  splendid 
courage  and  great  faith  in  God  and  man.  By  firmness  and  patience  and 
wondrous  tact  he  gradually  taught  the  savages  to  read  and  to  work,  and  when 
after  three  years  the  government  offered  to  return  them  to  their  Captain  p,.att 
homes,  twenty-three  of  them  refused  to  go.  Captain  Pratt  and  his  Cap- 
appealed  to  the  government  to  continue  their  education,  and  tives 
General  Armstrong,  with  his  undying  faith  in  human  beings  as  children  of 
one  Father  and  his  sublime  enthusiasm  for  humanity,  received  most  of  them  at 
Hampton  Institute,  the  rest  being  sent  to  the  North  under  the  care  of  Bishop 
Huntington,  of  New  York.  In  the  end  these  men  returned  to  their  tribes 
Christian  men,  and,  with  the  seventy  who  returned  directly  from  Florida, 
they  became  a  power  for  peace  and  industry  in  their  tribe.  Out  of 
this  small  beginning  grew  the  great  policy  of  Indian  education,  and  the  long 
story  of  death  and  destruction  began  to  change  to  the  bright  chronicle  of 
peace  and  education. 

What,  then,  is  the  condition  of  the  Indian  to-day?  In  number  there 
are  scarcely  more  than  two  hundred  and  forty  thousand  in  the  whole  coun- 
try. Of  these  less  than  one-fifth  depend  upon  the  government  for  support. 
All  told,  they  are  fewer  than  the  inhabitants  of  Buffalo  or  Cleveland  or 
Pittsburg,  yet  they  are  not  dying  out,  but  rather  steadily  increasing.  They 
are  divided  and  subdivided  into  many  tribes  of  different  characteristics 
and  widely  different  degrees  of  civilization.  Some  are  Sioux — these  are 
brave  and  able  and  intelligent ;  they  live  in  wigwams  or  tepees,  and  are 
dangerous  and  often  hostile.  Some  are  Zunis,  who  live  in 
houses  and  make  beautiful  pottery,  and  are  mild  and  peace- 
able,  and  do  not  question  the  ways  of  the  Great  Father  at 
Washington.  Some  are  roving  bands  of  Shoshones,  dirty,  ignorant,  and 
shiftless — the  tramps  of  their  race — who  are  on  every  man's  side  at  once. 
Some  are  Chilcats  or  Klinkas,  whose  Alaskan  homes  offer  new  problems  of 
new  kinds  for  every  day  we  know  them.  And  some  are  Cherokees,  living 
in  fine  houses,  dressed  in  the  latest  fashion,  and  spending  their  winters  in 
Washington  or  Saint  Louis. 

Yet  these,  and  many  of  other  kinds,  are  all  alike  Indians.  They  have 
their  own  governments,  their  own  unwritten  laws,  their  own  customs.  As 
a  race  they  are  neither  worthless  nor  degraded.  The  Indian  is  not  only 
brave,  strong,  and  able  by  inheritance  and  practice  to  endure,  but  he  is 


478  THE  INDIAN  IN  THE  NINETEENTH  CENTURY 

patient  under  wrong,  ready  and  eager  to  learn,  and  willing  to  undergo  much 
privation  for  that  end  ;  usually  affectionate  in  his  family  relations,  grateful 
to  a  degree,  pure  and  careful  of  the  honor  of  his  wife  and  daughter  ;  and 
he  is  also  patriotic  to  a  fault.  He  has  a  genius  for  government,  and  an 
unusual  interest  in  it.  He  is  full  of  manly  honor,  and  he  is  strongly  reli- 
gious. His  history  and  traditions  have  only  recently  been  traced,  to  the  de- 
light and  surprise  of  scientific  students.  His  daily  life  is  a  thing  of  ela- 
borate ceremonial,  and  his  national  existence  is  as  carefully  regulated  as  our 
own,  and  by  an  intricate  code.  It  is  true  that  our  failure  to  comprehend 
his  character  and  our  neglect  to  study  his  customs  have  bred  many  faults 
in  him  and  have  fostered  much  evil.  Our  treatment  of  him,  moreover,  has 
produced  and  increased  a  hostility  which  has  been  manifested  in  savage 
methods  for  which  we  have  had  little  mercy. 

But  we  have  not  always  given  the  same  admiration  to  warlike  virtues 
when  our  enemy  was  an  Indian  that  we  have  showered  without  stint  upon 
ancient  Gaul  or  modern  German.  The  popular  idea  of  the  Indian  not  only 

misconceives  his  character,  but  to  a  large  degree  his  habits  also. 

^ven  t'ie  wildest  tribes  live  for  the  most  part  in  huts  or  cabins 

made  of  logs,  with  two  windows  and  a  door.  In  the  middle 
is  a  fire,  sometimes  with  a  stovepipe  and  sometimes  without.  Here  the 
food  is  cooked,  mostly  stewed,  in  a  kettle  hung  gypsy-fashion,  or  laid  on 
stones  over  the  fire.  Around  the  fire,  each  in  a  particular  place  of  his  own, 
lies  or  sits  the  whole  family.  Sometimes  the  cooking  is  done  out  of  doors, 
and  in  summer  the  close  cabin  is  exchanged  for  a  tepee  or  tent.  Here  they 
live,  night  and  day.  At  night  a  blanket  is  hung  up,  partitioning  the  tent 
for  the  younger  women,  and  if  the  family  is  very  large,  there  are  often  two 
tents,  in  the  smaller  of  which  sleep  the  young  girls  in  charge  of  an  old 
woman.  These  tents  or  cabins  are  clustered  close  together,  and  their  in- 
habitants spend  their  days  smoking,  talking,  eating,  or  quarreling,  as  the 
case  may  be.  Sometimes  near  them,  sometimes  miles  away,  is  the  agent's 
house  and  the  government  buildings.  These  are  usually  a  commissary  build- 
ing where  the  food  for  the  Indians  is  kept,  a  blacksmith  shop,  the  store  of 
the  trader,  school  buildings,  and  perhaps  a  saw-mill.  To  this  place  the 
Indians  come  week  by  week  for  their  food.  The  amount  and  nature  of  the 

rations   called  for  by  treaties  vary  greatly    among   different 
Agencies  tribes.    But  everywhere  the  Indian  has  come  into  some  sort  of 

contact  with  the  whites,  and  usually  he  makes  some  shift  to 
adopt  the  white  man's  ways.  A  few  are  rich,  some  own  houses,  and  almost 
universally,  at  present,  government  schools  teach  the  children  something 
of  the  elements  of  learning  as  well  as  the  indispensable  English. 


THE  INDIAN  IN  THE  NINETEENTH  CENTURY 


479 


The  immediate  control  of  the  reservation  Indian  is  in  the  hands  of  the 
agent,  whose  power  is  almost  absolute,  and,  like  all  despotisms,  may  be 
very  good  or  intolerably  bad  according  to  the  character  of  the  man.  The 
agencies  are  visited  from  time  to  time  by  inspectors,  who  report  directly  to 
the  Commissioner  of  Indian  Affairs, — an  officer  of  the  Interior  Department 
and  responsible  to  the  secretary,  who  is,  of  course,  amenable  to  the  Presi- 
dent. In  each  house  of  Congress  is  a  committee  having  charge  of  all  legis- 
lation relating  to  Indian  affairs.  Besides  these  officials  there  is  the  Indian 
Commission  already  mentioned.  The  National  Indian  Rights  Association 
and  the  Women's  National  Indian  Association  are  the  unofficial  and  volun- 
tary guardians  of  the  Indian  work.  It  is  their  task  to  spread  correct  infor- 
mation, to  create  intelligent  interest,  to  set  in  motion  public  and  private 
forces  which  will  bring  about  legislation,  and  by  public  meetings  and  private 
labors  to  prevent  wrongs  against  the  Indian,  and  to  further  good  work  of 
many  kinds.  While  the  Indian  Rights  Association  does  the  The  Indian 
most  public  and  official  work  for  the  race  and  has  large  in-  Rights  ASSO- 
fluence  over  legislation,  the  Women's  Indian  Association  con-  ciation 
cerns  itself  more  largely  with  various  philanthropic  efforts  in  behalf  of  the 
individual,  and  thus  the  two  bodies  supplement  each  other. 

Hopeless  and  impossible  as  it  seemed  to  many  when  this  effort  began 
to  absorb  the  Indian,  to-day  we  see  the  process  well  under  way  and  in  some 
cases  half  accomplished  ;  and  in  this  work  the  government,  philanthropy, 
education  and  religion  have  all  had  their  share,  and  so  closely  have  these 
worked  together  that  neither  can  be  set  above  nor  before  the  others.  We 
began  to  realize,  it  is  true,  that  our  duty  and  our  safety  alike  lay  in  educating 
the  Indians  as  early  as  1819,  when  Congress  appropriated  $10,000  for  that 
purpose,  and  still  earlier  President  Washington  declared  to  a  deputation  of 
Indians  his  belief  that  industrial  education  was  their  greatest 

........  .          .  ,     rf  Appropriations 

need  ;  but  it  is  only  within  recent  years  that  determined  enorts  for  Education 
have  been  made  or  adequate  provision  afforded.  Beginning 
with  $10,000  in  1819,  we  had  reached  only  $20,000  in  1877  ;  but  the  appro- 
priation for  Indian  education  is  now  over  $2,500,000.  With  this  money  we 
support  great  industrial  training  schools  established  at  various  convenient 
points.  In  them  several  thousand  children  are  learning  not  only  books,  but 
all  manner  of  industries,  and  are  adding  to  study  the  training  of  character. 
There  are  more  than  150  boarding  schools  on  the  various  reservations 
teaching  and  training  these  children  of  the  hills  and  plains,  and  many 
gather  daily  at  the  three  hundred  little  day  schools  which  dot  the  prairies, 
some  of  them  appearing  to  the  unintiated  to  be  miles  away  from  any  habi- 
tation. This  does  not  include  the  mission  schools  of  the  various  churches. 


4&o  THE  INDIAN  IN  THE  NINETEENTH  CENTURY 

But  all  together  it  is  hoped  that  in  the  excellent  government  schools  now 
provided,  in  the  splendid  missionary  seminaries,  and  in  the  great  centres  of 
light  like  Hampton  and  Carlisle  and  Haskell  Institute,  we  shall  soon  do 
something  for  the  education  of  nearly  or  quite  all  the  Indian  children  who 
can  be  reached  with  schools.  At  present  the  daily  school  attendance  'is 
over  20,000. 

The  two  great  training  schools  at  the  East,  Hampton  and  Carlisle, 
Hampton  and  have  proved  object  lessons  for  the  white  man  as  well  as  the 
Carlisle  in-  Indian,  and  the  opposition  they  constantly  encounter  from 
dian  Schools  thOse  who  do  not  believe  that  the  red  man  can  ever  receive 
civilization  is  in  some  sort  a  proof  of  their  value.  In  the  main,  they  and 
all  their  kind  have  one  end — the  thorough  and  careful  training  in  books  and 
work  and  home  life  of  the  Indian  boy  and  girl — and  their  methods  are  much 
alike.  Once  a  year  the  superintendents  or  teachers  of  these  schools  go  out 
among  the  Indians  and  bring  back  as  many  boys  and  girls  as  they  can  per- 
suade the  fathers  and  mothers  to  send.  At  first  these  children  came  in  dirt 
and  filth,  and  with  little  or  no  ideas  of  any  regular  or  useful  life,  but  of  late 
many  of  them  have  gained  some  beginnings  of  civilization  in  the  day 
schools.  They  are  taught  English  first,  and  by  degrees  to  make  bread  and 
sew  and  cook  and  wash  and  keep  house  if  they  are  girls  ;  the  trade  of  a 
printer,  a  blacksmith,  a  carpenter,  etc.,  if  they  are  boys.  They  study  books, 
the  boys  are  drilled,  and  from  kind,  strong  men  and  gentle,  patient  women 
they  learn  to  respect  work  and  even  to  love  it,  to  turn  their  hands  to  any 
needed  effort,  to  adapt  themselves  to  new  situations. 

It  is  charged  that  the  Indian  educated  in  these  schools  does  not  remain 
civilized,  but  shortly  returns  to  his  habits  and  customs.     A  detailed  examina- 
tion into  the  lives  of  three  hundred  and  eighteen  Indian  students  who  have 
gone  out  from  Hampton  Institute  has  shown  that  only  thirtv-five 

The  Effect  of         f  •  r     u    •     r  '        - 

Education  have  in  any  way  disappointed  the  expectations  ot  their  mends 
and  teachers,  and  only  twelve  have  failed  altogether ;  and  the 
extraordinary  test  of  the  last  Sioux  war,  in  which  only  one  of  these  students, 
and  he  a  son-in-law  of  Sitting  Bull,  joined  the  hostiles,  may  well  settle  the 
question.  A  recent  statement  says  that  76  per  cent,  of  the  school  graduates 
prove  "good  average  men  and  women,  capable  of  taking  their  place  in  the 
great  body  politic  of  our  country." 

In  1887  a  new  step  was  taken  for  the  advancement  of  the  Indian,  in 
the  passage  of  the  Severally  Act,  by  which  homesteads  of  160  acres  were 
set  aside  for  each  head  of  a  family  willing  to  accept  the  proffer,  and  smaller 
homesteads  for  other  members  of  the  family.  These  were  to  be  free  from 
taxation  and  could  not  be  sold  for  twenty-five  years.  They  might  be 


THE  INDIAN  OF  THE  NINETEENTH  CENTURY  481 

selected  on  the  reservation  of  the  tribe   or   anywhere   else  on  the   public 
domain.     This   allotment    of  land  carried  with  it  all  the  rights,  privileges 
and  immunities  of  American  citizenship.     In  case  the  Indian 
should  not  care  to  take  up  a  homestead,  he  could  still  become      ACfeVera  ty 
a  citizen  if  he  took  up  his  residence  apart  from  the  tribe  and 
adopted  civilized  habits.     The  purpose  was  to  break  up  the  tribal  organiza- 
tion which  had  stood  so  greatly  in  the  way  of  the  beneficent  purposes  of 
the  government,  and  to  convert  each  Indian  into  an  individual  citizen  of  the 
United  States. 

The  effort  has  been  attended  with  highly  encouraging  success.  Within 
iwelve  years  after  the  law  was  passed  55,467  Indians  had  taken  up  homesteads, 
aggregating  in  all  6,708,628  acres.  Of  these  agriculturists,  more  than  15,000 
were  heads  of  families,  around  whose  farms  were  gathered  the  smaller  ones 
of  the  other  members  of  the  family.  The  change  to  the 

independence  and  responsibilites  of  United  States  citizenship    Tlje  Homestead 

J         Indians 
was  so  sudden  as  to  prove  a  severe   strain   to    the    Indian, 

accustomed  to  consider  himself  a  fraction  of  a  tribe  and  lacking  the  full 
sense  of  individuality.  Yet  the  failures  have  been  very  few,  and  we  begin 
to  see  our  way  clear  to  a  final  disposal  of  the  long-existing  Indian  question. 

As  regards  the  effect  of  religious  training  upon  the  Indians,  it  may  be 
said  to  be  quite  encouraging.  Of  the  33,000  Sioux,  for  instance,  8,000  are 
now  church  members.  The  Presbyterian  Church  numbers  nearly  5,000 
Indian  members  and  4,000  Sunday-school  pupils;  while  the  total  number 
of  church  communicants  among  the  Indians  is  nearly  30,000. 

Thus,  with  the  close  of  the  nineteenth  century,  there  is  good  reason  to 
hope  for  the  end  of  a  serious  difficulty  that  has  confronted  the  whites  since 
their  first  settlement  in  this  country  nearly  three  hundred  years  ago.  War, 
slaughter,  injustice,  wrongs  innumerable  have  attended  its  attempted  solu- 
tion, which  long  seemed  as  if  it  would  be  reached  only  when  all  the  red  men 
had  been  exterminated.  Fortunately  it  was  justice,  not  slaughter,  that  was 
needed,  and  the  moment  our  government  awoke  fully  to  this 
fact  and  began  to  practice  justice  the  difficulty  began  to  disap- 
pear.  To-day  just  treatment,  education,  religious  training  are 
rapidly  overcoming  the  assumed  ineradicable  savageness  of  the  Indian,  while 
the  breaking  up  of  the  tribal  system  promises  before  many  years  to  do  away 
with  the  political  aggregation  of  the  Indians,  and  distribute  them  among 
the  other  citizens  of  our  country  as  members  of  the  general  body  politic. 
Thus  has  the  nineteenth  century  happily  disposed  of  an  awkward  problem 
that  threatened  seriously  the  successful  development  of  our  nation  a 
century  ago. 


CHAPTER  XXXIII. 

The  Development  of  the  American  Navy. 

IN  scarcely  any  department  of  human  industry  are  the  changes  produced 
by  the  progress  of  civilization  more  strikingly  seen  than  in  the  navy. 
When   America  was   discovered  the  galleon  and  the  caravel  were  the 
standard  warships  of  the  world — clumsy  wooden  tubs,  towering  high  in  the 
air,  propelled  by  sails  and  even  oars,  with  a  large  number  of  small  cannons, 
and  men  armed  with  muskets  and  cross-bows.     Such  was  the  kind  of  vessels 
that  made  up  the   famous  Armada,  "that  great  fleet  invincible," which  was 
vanquished  by  the  smaller  and  lighter  crafts  of   Britain.     Three   hundred 
years  have  passed,  and  what  is  the  warship  of  to-day  ?     A    low-lying  hulk 
Development  in    °f  ^ron  an<^  steel  ;  armed  with  a  few  big  guns,  each  one   of 
Naval  Archi-    which  throws  a  heavier  shot  than  a  galleon's  whole  broadside  I 
driven  resistlessly  through  the  water  by  mighty  steam  engines  ; 
lighted  and  steered  by  electric  apparatus,  and  using  an  electric  search-light 
that  makes    midnight  as    bright  as  day.     All  the  triumphs  of  science  and 
mechanic  arts  have   contributed  to  the  perfection    of  these    dreadful    sea 
monsters,  a  single  one  of  which  could  have  destroyed  the  whole  Armada  in 
an  hour,  and  laughed  to  scorn  the  might  of  Nelson  at  Trafalgar. 

And  in  the  development  of  this  modern  warship  no  other  nation  on  earth 
has  won  as  much  credit  as  the  United  States,  the  whole  career  of  which  upon 
the  sea  has  been  one  of  glory  and  success,  while  its  inventors  and  engineers 
have  gained  as  much  renown  as  its  admirals  and  sailors,  in  their  develop- 
ment of  new  ideas  in  naval  architecture  and  warfare.  Of  all  ocean  exploits 
American  *n  history  that  of  John  Paul  Jones  in  the  Bon  Homme  Richard 

Sailors  and       ranks  first.    Lord  Nelson  himself  scarcely  showed  such  indomi- 
Their  Doings     tabje   pluck  and  intrepidity.     And  in  the  war  of   1812  Ameri- 
can ships  and  sailors  took  from  Great  Britain  the  credit  of  being  the  mistress 
of  the  seas,  winning  gallantly  in  every  conflict  where  the  forces  engaged  were 
at  all  near  equality. 

This  good  work  of  the  sailors  was  aided  by  that  of  the  shipwrights. 

the  Americans  winning  battles  largely  because  they  had  better  ships  than  their 

opponents.     But   their    success   was    also    in    great .  measure    due    to    the 

superiority  of  their  ordnance  and  the  better  service  of  their  guns.     It  was 

482 


THE  DEVELOPMENT  OF  THE  AMERICAN  NA  VY  485 

to  the   careful  sighting  of  the  pieces  that  our  sailors  owed  much  of  their 
victorious  career.    While  most  of  the  British  shot  were  wasted 

on  the  sea  and  in  the  air,  nearly  all  the  American  balls  went  Amer'can 

.        _  *  .  ,  .  narksmanship 

home,  carrying  death  to  the  British  crews  and  destruction  to 

their  hulls  and   spars,   while    the    American   ships  and  sailors    escaped   in 
great  measure  unharmed. 

As  regards  the  work  of  our  naval  inventors,  it  will  suffice  to  say,  that 
the  Americans,  while  not  the  first  to  plate  vessels  with  iron,  were  the  first 
to  do  so  effectively  and  to  prove  the  superiority  of  the  ironclad  in  naval 
warfare.  The  memorable  contest  in  Hampton  Roads  between  the  Monitor 
and  the  Merrimac  made  useless  in  a  day  all  the  fleets  of  all  the  nations  of 
the  world,  and  caused  such  a  revolution  in  naval  architecture  and  warfare  as 
the  world  had  never  known. 

The  fleet  with  which  the  United  States  entered  the  nineteenth  century 
was  due  to  the  depredations  on  American  ships  and  commerce  of  the  war 
vessels  of  France  and  Great  Britain.  This  roused  great  indignation,  par- 
ticularly against  France.  While  England  contented  herself  with  stopping 
American  ships  on  the  high  seas  and  impressing  sailors  claimed  to  be  of 
British  birth,  France  seized  our  ships  themselves,  under  the  pretext  that 
they  had  British  goods  on  board,  and  if  she  found  an  American  seaman  on 
a  British  ship — even  if  impressed — she  treated  him  as  a  The  Early 
pirate  instead  of  as  a  prisoner  of  war.  Protection  was  felt  American 
to  be  necessary,  and  preparations  for  war  were  made.  The 
small  navy  of  the  Revolution  had  practically  disappeared,  and  a  new  one 
was  built.  In  July,  1798,  the  three  famous  frigates,  the  Constellation,  the 
United  States,  and  the  Constitution — the  renowned  Old  Ironsides — were 
completed  and  sent  to  sea,  and  others  were  ordered  to  be  built.  Actual 
hostilities  soon  began.  French  piratical  cruisers  were  captured,  and  an 
American  squadron  sailed  for  the  West  Indies  to  deal  with  the  French 
privateers  that  abounded  there,  in  which  work  it  was  generally  successful. 
In  January,  1799,  Congress  voted  a  million  dollars,  for  building  six  ships  of 
the  line  and  six  sloops.  Soon  after,  on  February  9,  occurred 
the  first  engagement  between  vessels  of  the  American  and 
French  navies.  The  Constellation,  Captain  Truxton,  over- 
hauled L  Insurgente  at  St.  Kitts,  in  the  Wrest  Indies,  and  after  a  fight  of  an 
hour  and  a  quarter  forced  her  to  surrender.  The  Constellation  had  three 
men  killed  and  one  wounded ;  L Insurgente  twenty  killed  and  forty-six 
wounded. 

Again,  on-  February  i,  1800,  Truxton  with  the  Constellation  came  up, 
at  Guadeloupe,  with  the  French  Frigate  La  Vengeance.  After  chasing  her 


486  THE  DEVELOPMENT  OF  THE  AMERICAN  NA  VY 

two  days  he  brought  on  an  action.  The  two  ships  fought  all  night.  In  the 
morning,  La  Vengeance,  completely  silenced  and  greatly  shattered,  drew 
away  and  escaped  to  Cura9oa,  where  she  was  condemned  as  unfit  for  further 
service.  The  Constellation  was  little  injured  save  in  her  rigging.  For  his 
gallantry,  Truxton  received  a  gold  medal  from  Congress.  Later  in  that 
year  there  were  some  minor  engagements,  in  which  the  American  vessels 
were  successful. 

By  the  spring  of  1801,  friendly  relations  with  France  were  restored. 
The  President  was  accordingly  authorized  to  dispose  of  all  the  navy,  save 
thirteen  ships,  six  of  which  were  to  be  kept  constantly  in  commission,  and 
to  dismiss  from  the  service  all  officers  save  nine  captains,  thirty-six  lieuten- 
ants, and  one  hundred  and  fifty  midshipmen.  At  about  this  time  ground 
was  purchased  and  navy-yards  were  established  at  Portsmouth,  Boston,  New 
York,  Philadelphia,  Washington  and  Norfolk,  and  half  a  million  dollars  were 
appropriated  for  the  completion  of  six  seventy-four  gun  ships. 

Nothing  needs  to  be  said  here  concerning  our  conflicts  with  the  pirates 
of  the  Mediterranean  or  of  the  remarkable  exploits  of  the  small  American 
navy  in  the  second  war  with  Great  Britain.  These  have  already  been  dealt 
with  in  chapters  xxv.  and  xxvi.  In  the  interval  between  that  period 
and  the  Civil  War  there  was  little  demand  upon  the  American  navy. 
The  naval  operations  during  the  Mexican  war  were  of  no  great  importance. 
Some  vessels  were  used  in  scientific  exploration,  and  the  dignity  of  America 
had  to  be  asserted  on  some  occasions,  but  the  most  important  service  ren- 
dered by  the  navy  was  the  opening  up  of  Japan  to  the  commerce  of  the 
world.  After  some  fruitless  efforts  at  intercourse  with  the 
island  realm,  Commodore  Perry  was  sent  thither  in  1852,  and 
by  a  resolute  show  of  force  he  succeeded  in  obtaining  a  treaty 
of  commerce  from  Japan.  That  treaty  opened  Japan  to  the  world,  and  was 
the  first  step  in  its  remarkable  recent  career. 

At  the  beginning  of  the  Civil  War  the  United  States  was  very  poorly 
provided  with  ships  of  war.  There  were  only  forty-two  vessels  in  commis- 
sion, nearly  all  of  which  were  absent  in  distant  parts  of  the  world.  Others 
were  destroyed  in  southern  ports,  and  for  a  time  there  was  actually  only 
one  serviceable  warship  on  the  North  Atlantic  coast.  This  difficulty  was 
soon  overcome  by  buying  and  building,  and  by  the  end  of  1861  there  were 
264  vessels  in  commission,  and  all  the  ports  in  the  South  were  under 
blockade.  These  vessels  were  a  motley  set, — ferry  boats,  freight  steamers, 
every  sort  of  craft — but  they  served  to  tide  over  the  emergency. 

With  all  this  we  are  not  particularly  concerned,  but  must  turn  our 
attention  to  the  great  naval  events  of  the  war,  those  conflicts  which  served 


REAR-ADMIRAL  JOHN   CRITTENDEN    WATSON 


REAR-ADMIRAL  WINF1ELU  SCOTT  SCHLEY 


LEADING  COMMANDERS   OF  OUR   NAVY   IN   THE   SPANISH-AMERICAN   WAR 


MAJOR-GENERAL   NELSON  APPLETON  MILES 


MAJOR-GENERAL  WESLEY  MERRITT.  MAJOR-GENERAL  WILLIAM  R.  SHAFTER. 

LEADING   COMMANDERS  OF  OUR   ARMY  IN   THE  SPANISH-AMERICAN   WAR.  . 


THE  DEVELOPMENT  OF  THE  AMERICAN  NA  VY  489 

as  turning  points  in  nineteenth  century  warfare.  And  first  and  greatest 
among  these  was  the  remarkable  naval  battle  in  Hampton  Roads  on 
March  9,  1862. 

The  use  of  iron  for  plating  the  hulls  of  ships  was  not  first  adopted  in 
American  war.     This  device  was  employed  by  England  and  France  in  the 
Crimean   war  in  attacks   on   the   Turkish   forts.     The  idea,  however,  was 
American.     As  early  as   1813  Colonel  John  Stevens,  of  New 
York,  made  plans  for  an  ironclad  ship  somewhat  resembling      ironplating 
the  Monitor  in  type.      His  son  Edwin  afterwards  performed      of  American 
experiments  with  cannon  balls  against  iron  plate,  and  in  1844 
Robert  L.   Stevens  began  the  construction   of  a  vessel   to  be  plated  with 
4^-inch  iron  for  the  government.    It  was  never  finished,  though  in  all  nearly 
$2,000,000  were  spent  upon  it.      New  invention  rendered  it  obsolete  before 
it  could  be  completed,  yet  to  it  belongs  the  credit  of  inaugurating  the  era 
of  the  ironclad  navy.     After  the  Crimean  war  France  and  England  both 
built    ironclad    ships,   the    French  La  Gloire  being  the   first 

Early  Ironclads 

ironclad    ever  constructed.      It   was  followed  by  the   British      of  Great 
Warrior,  launched  in  January,  1861.     Yet  despite  this  enter-      Britain  and 
prise,  the  fact  remains  that  the  first  conception  of  an  iron- 
clad ship  belongs  to  the  United  States,  and  the  first  hostile  meeting  of  two 
ironclads  took  place  in  American  waters. 

At  the  opening  of  the  American  Civil  War  this  idea  was  in  the  air, 
and  it  was  soon  made  evident  that  the  era  of  wooden  warships  was  near  its 
end.  It  is  interesting  to  learn  that  the  Confederates  were  the  first  to  adopt 
the  new  idea,  the  earliest  ironclad  of  the  war  being  produced  by  them  on 
the  lower  Mississippi.  A  large  double-screw  tugboat  was  employed,  whose 
deck  was  covered  with  a  rounded  roof,  plated  with  bar  iron  one  and  a  half 
inches  thick.  This  craft — named  the  Manassas  after  the  first  Confederate 
victory — made  its  appearance  at  the  mouth  of  the  Mississippi  on  the  night 
of  October  31,  1861,  and  created  a  complete  panic  in  the 
blockading  fleet  at  that  point.  The  Manassas  wrecked  one 
of  her  engines  in  attempting  to  ram  the  flagship  Richmond, 
and  crept  slowly  back,  at  the  same  time  as  the  alarmec  fleet  was  hastening 
away  with  all  speed  over  the  waters  of  the  gulf. 

While  this  event  was  taking  place,  two  ironclads  of  more  formidable 
description  were  being  built  elsewhere,  the  meeting  of  which  subsequently 
was  the  most  startling  revelation  to  the  nations  of  the  earth  ever  shown  in 
naval  warfare.  The  United  States  steam  frigate  Merrimac  had  Been  set 
on  fire  at  the  Gosport  Navy  Yard,  when  hastily  abandoned  by  the  Federal 
navy  officers  at  the  outbreak  of  the  war.  It  was  burned  to  the  water's 


49°  THE  DEVELOPMENT  OF  THE  AMERICAN  NA  VY 

edge  and  sunk,  but  soon  after  the  Confederates  raised  the  hull,  which  was 
seriously  damaged — its  engines  being  in  reasonably  good  condition — and 
they  hurriedly  undertook  the  work  of  converting  it  into  an  ironclad.  A 
The  Plating  of  powerful  prow  of  cast  iron  was  attached  to  its  stem,  a  few  feet 

the"Merri-  underwater  and  projecting  sufficiently  to  enable  it  to  break  in 
the  side  of  any  wooden  vessel.  A  low  wooden  roof  two  feet 
thick  was  built  at  an  incline  of  about  36  degrees,  and  this  was  plated  with 
double  iron  armor,  making  a  four-inch  iron  plating.  Under  this  protection 
were  mounted  two  broadside  batteries  of  four  guns  each,  and  a  gun  at  the 
stem  and  stern.  The  government  was  soon  advised  of  the  raising  of  the  hull 
of  the  Merrimac,  and  without  having  detailed  information  on  the  subject,  knew 
that  a  powerful  ironclad  was  being  constructed.  A  board  of  naval  officers 
had  been  selected  by  the  government  to  consider  the  various  suggestions 
for  the  construction  of  ironclad  vessels,  and  although,  as  a  rule,  naval 
officers  had  little  faith  in  the  experiment,  Congress  coerced  them  into 
action  by  the  appropriation  of  half  a  million  dollars  for  the  work.  The 
Naval  Board  recommended  a  trial  of  three  of  the  most  acceptable  plans 
presented,  and  ships  on  these  plans  were  put  under  contract. 

Among  those  who  pressed  the  adoption  of  light  ironclads,  capable  of 
penetrating  our  shallow  harbors,  rivers,  and  bayous,  was  John  Ericsson. 
Ericsson  and  He  was  a  Swede  by  birth,  but  had  long  been  an  American 

the  "Honi-  citizen,  and  exhibited  uncommon  genius  and  scientific  attain- 
ments in  engineering.  The  vessel  he  proposed  to  build  was 
to  be  only  127  feet  in  length,  27  feet  in  width,  and  12  feet  deep,  to  be 
covered  by  a  flat  deck  rising  only  one  or  two  feet  above  water.  The  only 
armament  of  the  vessel  was  to  be  a  revolving  turret,  about  20  feet  in  diame- 
ter and  nine  feet  high,  made  of  plated  wrought  iron  aggregating  eight  inches 
in  thickness,  with  two  eleven-inch  Dahlgren  guns.  The  guns  were  so  con- 
structed that  they  could  be  fired  as  the  turret  revolved,  and  the  port-hole 
would  be  closed  immediately  after  firing.  The  size  of  the  Merrimac  was 
well  known  to  the  government  to  be  quite  double  the  length  and  breadth 
of  the  Monitor,  but  it  had  the  disadvantage  of  requiring  nearly  double  the 
depth  of  water  in  which  to  manoeuvre  it.  Various  sensational  reports  were 
received  from  time  to  time  of  the  progress  made  on  the  Merrimac,  the 
name  of  which  was  changed  by  the  Confederates  to  Virginia,  and  as  there 
were  only  wooden  hulls  at  Fortress  Monroe  to  resist  it,  great  solicitude  was 
felt  for  the  safety  of  the  fleet  and  the  maintenance  of  the  blockade.  While 
the  government  hurried  the  construction  of  the  new  ironclads  to  the 
utmost,  little  faith  was  felt  that  so  fragile  a  vessel  as  the  Monitor  could 
cope  with  so  powerful  an  engine  of  war  as  the  Merrimac.  The  most 


THE  DEVELOPMENT  OF  THE  AMERICAN  NA  VY  491 

formidable  vessels  of  the  navy,  including  the  Minnesota,  the  twin  ship  of  the 
original  Merrimac,  the  St.  Lawrence,  the  Roanoke,  the  Congress  and  the  Cum- 
berland, were  all  in  Hampton  Rhoads  waiting  the  advent  of  the  Merrimac. 

On  Saturday,  the  8th  of  March,  the  Merrimac  appeared  at  the  mouth 
of  the  Elizabeth  River  and  steamed  directly  for  the  Federal  fleet.     All  the 
vessels  slipped  cable  and  started  to  enter  the  conflict,  but  the  heavier  ships 
soon  ran   aground  and  became   helpless.     The  Merrimac  hurried  on,  and, 
after  firing  a  broadside  at  the  Congress,  crashed  into  the  sides    The  Coming  of 
of   the    Cumberland,   whose  brave  men  fired   broadside   after      the  ••  Mer- 
broadside  at  their  assailant  only  to  see  their  balls  glance  from      nmac  " 
its  mailed  roof.     An  immense   hole  had  been  broken  into  the   hull  by  the 
prow  of  the  Merrimac,  and  in  a  very  few  minutes  the  Cumberland  sank  in 
fifty  feet  of  water,  her  last  gun  being  fired  when  the  water  had  reached  its 
muzzle,  while  the  whole  gallant  crew  went  to  the  bottom  with  their  flag  still 
flying  from  the  masthead.      The  Merrimac  then  turned  upon  the  Congress, 
which  was  compelled  to  flee  from  such  a  hopeless  struggle,  and  was  finally 
grounded  near  the  shore ;  but  the  Merrimac  selected  a  position  where  her 
guns  could  rake  her  antagonist,  and,  after  a  bloody  fight  of 
more  than  an  hour,  with   the  commander  killed  and  the  ship      the  "Con- 
on  fire,  the  Congress  struck  her  flag,  and  was  soon  blown  up       gress "  and 
by  the  explosion  of  her  magazine.      Most  fortunately  for  the      berlan^"'"" 
Federal  fleet,  the  Merrimac  had   not  started  out  on  its  work 
of  destruction  until  after  midday.      Its   iron  prow  was  broken  in  breaching 
the  Cumberland,  and,  after  the  fierce  broadsides  it  had   received  from  the 
Congress   and  the   Cumberland,  with    the    other    vessels    firing    repeatedly 
during  the    hand-to-hand  conflict,  the  Merrimac  s  captain  was  content  to 
withdraw  for  the  day,  and  anchor  for  the  night  under  the  Confederate  shore 
batteries  on  Sewall's  Point. 

The  night  of  March  8th  was  one  of  the  gloomiest  periods  of  the  war. 
The  Merrimac  was  sure  to  resume  its  work  on  the  following  day,  and,  with 
the  fleet  destroyed  and  the  blockade  raised,  Washington,  and  even  New 
York,  might  be  at  the  mercy  of  this  terrible  engine  of  war.  But  deliverance 
was  at  hand.  The  building  of  the  Monitor  had  been  hurried  with  all 
speed,  and  this  little  vessel, — "a  cheese  box  on  a  raft,"  as  it  was  con- 
temptuously termed — was  afloat  and  steaming  in  all  haste  The  Monjt0r  i" 
to  Hampton  Roads.  It  entered  there  that  night,  and  took  up  Hampton 
a  position  near  the  helpless  Minnesota  in  bold  challenge  to  the 
Merrimac.  On  Sunday  morning,  March  Qth,  the  Confederate  ironclad 
came  out  to  finish  its  work  of  destruction,  preparatory  to  a  cruise  against 
the  northern  ports. 


492 


THE  DEVELOPMENT  OF  THE  AMERICAN  NAVY 


The  little  Monitor  steamed  boldly  out  to  meet  it.     The  history  of  that 

conflict  need  not  be  repeated.     To  the  amazement  of  the  commander  of  the 

Merrimac,  the  Monitor  was  impervious  to  its  terrible  broadsides,  while  its 

lightness  and  shallow  draft  enabled   it   to  out-manoeuvre  its 

The  First  Battle  antaeonist  at  every  turn  ;  and  while  it  did  not  fire  one  sain  to 
of  Ironclads  ./•-..  .  »*•        • 

ten  from  its  adversary,  its  aim  was  precise  and  the  Merrimac 

was  materially  worsted  in  the  conflict.  After  three  hours  of  desperate 
battle  the  defiant  and  invincible  conqueror  of  the  day  before  found  it 
advisable  to  give  up  the  contest  and  retreat  to  Norfolk. 

It  was  this  naval  conflict,  and  the  signal  triumph  of  the  little 
Monitor,  that  revolutionized  the  whole  naval  warfare  of  the  world  in  a 
single  day,  and  from  that  time  until  the  present  the  study  of  all  nations  in 
aggressive  or  defensive  warfare  has  looked  to  the  perfection  of  the  iron- 
clad. To  the  people  of  the  present  time  the  ironclad  is  so  familiar,  and  its 
discussion  so  common,  that  few  recall  the  fact  that  less  than  fifty  years  ago 
it  was  almost  undreamed  of  as  an  important  implement  of  war.  It  is  notable 
that  neither  of  those  vessels  which  inaugurated  ironclad  warfare,  and  made 
it  at  once  the  accepted  method  for  naval  combat  for  the  world,  ever  after- 
ward engaged  in  battle  during  the  three  years  of  war  which  con- 
Fate  of  the  First  tinueci.  The  Merrimac  was  feared  as  likely  to  make  a  new  incur- 
Ironclads  .  11-1 

sion  against  our  fleet,  but  her  commander  did  not  again  venture 

to  lock  horns  with  the  Monitor.  Early  in  May  the  capture  of  Norfolk  by 
General  Wool  placed  the  Merrimac  in  a  position  of  such  peril  that  on  the 
i  ith  of  that  month  she  was  fired  by  her  commander  and  crew  and  abandoned, 
and  soon  after  was  made  a  hopeless  wreck  by  the  explosion  of  her  magazine. 
The  fate  of  the  Monitor  was  even  more  tragic.  The  following  December, 
when  being  towed  off  Cape  Hatteras,  she  foundered  in  a  gale  and  went  to 
the  bottom  with  part  of  her  officers  and  men  ;  but  she  had  taught  the  prac- 
ticability of  ironclads  in  naval  warfare,  and  when  she  went  down  a  whole 
fleet  was  under  construction  after  her  own  model,  and  some  vessels  already 
in  active  service. 

While  these  events  were  taking  place  in  the  waters  of  the  coast,  a  fleet 
of  ironclad  boats  was  being  built  for  service  on  the  rivers  of  the  West,  seven  of 
these  being  begun  in  August,  1861,  by  James  B.  Eads,  the  famous  engineer 
of  later  times.  These  were  light-draught,  stern  paddle-wheel  river  steamers, 
plated  with  2%-inch  iron  on  their  sloping  sides  and  ends.  These,  and 
those  that  followed  them,  saw  much  service  in  the  western  rivers,  bombard- 
ing Forts  Henry  and  Donelson,  running  through  the  fire  of  the  forts  on 
Island  No.  10,  and  daring  the  terrible  bombardment  from  the  Vicksburg 
batteries. 


THE  DEVELOPMENT  OF  THE  AMERICAN  NA  VY  493 

But  the  most  famous  event  in  river  warfare  during  the  conflict  was  the 
exploit  of  the  daring  Farragut  in  running  past  Forts  St.  Philip  and  Jackson  on 
the  Mississippi  with  his  fleet  of  wooden  vessels,  breaking  their  iron  chain, 
dispersing  their  gun-boats,  and  driving  ashore  the  ironclad 

Manassas.     The  Confederates  had    also  an  ironclad  battery,   Fa™-a2ut  on  the 

.Mississippi 

the  Louisiana,  but  it    proved  of  little    service,  and    Farragut 

sailed  triumphantly  through  the  hail  of  fire   of  the  forts,  and   on  the  same 
afternoon  reached  the  wharves  of  New  Orleans. 

The  most  famous  exploit  of  Farragut  was  the  passing  of  the  forts  at 
Mobile.  It  is  worth  a  brief  relation,  for  in  this  the  resources  of  ironclad 
warfare,  as  then  developed,  were  fully  employed,  while  the  bottom  of  the 
channel  was  thickly  sown  with  torpedoes,  a  mechanism  in  naval  warfare  to 
become  of  great  importance  in  the  following  years.  Farragut's  main  fleet, 
indeed,  was  of  wooden  ships,  but  he  had  four  monitors ;  while  the  Con- 
federates, in  addition  to  their  forts  and  gunboats,  had  the  ironclad  ram  Ten- 
nessee, the  most  powerful  floating  battery  ever  built  by  them.  This  form- 
idable craft — for  that  period — was  plated  with  six  inch  iron  armor  in  front 
and  five  inch  elsewhere  ;  and,  while  carrying  only  six  guns,  these  were  6-  and 
8-inch  rifled  cannon. 

The  torpedoes,  of  which  no  fewer  than  180  were  sown  in  the  channel, 
were  not  quite  ineffective,  since  one  of  them  exploded  under  the  monitor 
Tecumseh,  and  she  went  down  head  first  with  nearly  all  her  crew.  The 
Brooklyn,  following  in  her  track,  halted  as  this  disaster  was 
seen,  her  recoil  checking  all  the  vessels  in  her  rear.  Farragut  F *JJjf*"|i  ^Uoes 
had  taken  his  famous  stand  in  the  shrouds,  just  under  the 
maintop,  and  hailed  the  Brooklyn  as  he  came  up  in  the  Hartford.  •'  What 
is  the  matter?"  he  demanded.  "  Torpedoes,"  came  back  the  reply.  "  Damn 
the  torpedoes!"  cried  Farragut,  in  a  burst  of  noble  anger.  "Follow  me." 
As  the  Hartford  passed  on  the  percussion  caps  of  the  torpedoes  were  heard 
snapping  under  her  keel.  Fortunately  they  were  badly  made,  and  no  other 
explosion  took  place. 

The  story  of  the  battle  we  may  briefly  complete.  The  ships  dashed 
almost  unharmed  through  the  fire  of  the  forts,  driving  the  Confederate  gun- 
ners from  their  pieces  with  a  shower  of  grape  and  canister ;  and  the  contest 
ended  with  an  attack  upon  the  Tennessee,  whose  stern-port  shutters  were 
jammed  and  her  steering  gear  shot  away.  Rendered  helpless,  she  was 
forced  to  surrender,  and  the  fight  was  at  an  end. 

The  Confederates  were  singularly  unfortunate  with  their  ironclads.  With 
the  exception  of  the  temporary  advantage  gained  by  the  Merrimac,  all  their 
labor  and  expense  proved  of  no  avail.  The  last  of  these  war-monsters, 


494  THE  DEVELOPMENT  OF  THE  AMERICAN  NA  VY 

the  Albemarle,  built   in    Roanoke  River,  and   causing  some   alarm   in   the 

blockading  fleet  on  the  coast,  was  sent  to  the  bottom  by  a  daring  young 

officer,  Lieutenant  Gushing,  in  one  of  the  most  gallant  exploits  of  the  war. 

He  and  a  few  men,  in  a  steam  launch  carrying  a  large  torpedo, 

Gushing  and     sailed  up  the  stream  at  night  to  where  the  ironclad  lay  in  her 

the  "  Albe-       dock  at  Plymouth.     A  protecting  raft  of  logs    guarded  the 

Albemarle,  but  Gushing  daringly  drove  his  launch  up  on  the 

slimy  logs,  exploded  the  torpedo  as  it  touched  the  sides  of  the  ship,  and 

leaped  with  his  men  into  the  stream.     The  Albemarle  sank  to  a  muddy  bed 

in  the  river's  bottom,  and  Gushing  escaped  to  the  blockading  fleet,  after  a 

series  of  thrilling  adventures. 

But  the  most  important  thing  achieved  in  this  war  was  the  entire  trans- 
formation effected  in  naval  science.      Previously  the  warship  had  been  of  the 
type  of  an  armed  merchantship,  propelled  by  sails  or,  latterly,  by  steam,  and 
carrying  a  large  number  of  small  guns.     Modern  inventiveness  made  it,  after 
the  duel  of  the  Monitor  and  Merrimac,  a  floating  fortress  of  iron 
e    ype  <       e  ^  S£ee^  carrying  a  few  enormously  heavy  guns.     The  glory 
of  the  old  line-of-battle  ship,  with  three  or  four  tiers  of  guns 
on  each  side  and  a  big  cloud  of  canvas  overhead,  firing  rattling  broadsides, 
and  manoeuvring  to  get  and  hold  the  weather-gauge  of  the  enemy — all  that 
was  relegated  to  the  past  forever.      In  its  place  came  the  engine  of  war, 
with  little  pomp  and  circumstance,  but  with  all  the  resources  of  science  shut 
within  its  ugly,  black  iron  hull. 

John  Paul  Jones,  with  his  Bon  Homme  Richard,  struck  the  blow  that 
made  universal  the  law  of  neutrals'  rights.  Hull,  with  the  Constitution, 
sending  a  British  frigate  to  the  bottom,  showed  what  Yankee  ingenuity  in 
sighting  guns  could  do.  Ericsson  and  Worden,  with  the  Monitor,  sent 
wooden  navies  to  the  hulk-yard  and  ushered  in  the  era  of  iron  and  steel 
fighting-engines.  These  were  the  great  naval  events  of  a  century. 

Yet  the  American  navy  was  greatly  neglected  in  the  years  succeeding  the 
Civil  War,  while  foreign  nations,  quick  to  learn  the  lesson  taught  at  Hampton 
Roads,  were  straining  every  nerve  to  build  powerful  fleets  of  iron  and 
steelclad  ships,  and  to  develop  the  breech-loading  rifled  cannon  into  an 
Beginning  of  the  implement  of  war  capable  of  piercing  through  many  inches 
Modern  Am-  of  solid  steel.  It  was  not  until  after  1880  that  our  govern- 
encan  Fleet  ment  awoke  to  the  need  of  a  navy  on  the  new  lines,  and 
began  to  take  advantage  of  the  lessons  that  had  been  learned  abroad.  It 
is  not  our  purpose  to  speak  in  detail  of  the  results.  The  steelclad  battle- 
ship and  cruiser,  the  armor-piercing  breech-loader,  the  quick-firing  gun,  the 
machine  gun,  the  submarine  torpedoboat,  the  anchored  mine,  the  auto- 


THE  DEVELOPMENT  OF  THE  AMERICAN  NA  VY  495 

mobile  torpedo,  and  other  devices  have  come  to  make  the  naval  warfare  of 
our  day  a  wonderfully  different  thing  from  that  of  the  past. 

The  United  States  began  late  to  build  a   modern   navy,  but   has  made 
highly  encouraging  progress,  and  while  still  far  in  the  rear  of  Great  Britain 
and    France   in   the   number  of   her  ships,   possesses    some    of    the    finest 
examples  of   naval  architecture  now  afloat  upon  the  waters.    The4<Co|um, 
Among  commerce-destroyers  the   Columbia  and  the  Minnea-      bia"andthe 
polls,   with   their  respective  trial   speeds  of   22.81    and   23.07       "rtinnea- 
knots,  stand  beyond  any  rivals  to-day  in  the  navies  of  Europe, 
while  the  inventive  naval  engineering  of  the  Americans  is  exemplified  in 
the  double  turrets  of  the  Kearsarge  and  Kentucky,  two  additions  to  our 
navy  of  original  formation,  and  likely  to  give  an  excellent  account  of  them- 
selves should  any  new  war  occur. 

Of  modern  fleets,  however,  far  the  most  powerful  one  is  that  of  Great 
Britain,  the  government  of  which  island   shows  a  fixed  determination   to 
keep  its  naval  force  beyond  rivalry.     This  stupendous  fleet  forms  the  most 
striking  example  of  naval  destructiveness  the  world  has  ever   The  powerful 
seen,  and  the  nations  of  the  world  are  entering  the  twentieth      Fleet  of  Great 
century  with  powers  of  warfare  developed  enormously  beyond 
those  with  which  they  entered  the  nineteenth.     We  can  only  hope  that  this 
vast  development  both  in  army  and  navy  may  prove  to  exert  a  peace-compel- 
ling influence,  and  that  every  new  discovery  in  the  art  of  killing  and  destroy- 
ing may  be  a  nail  in  the  coffin  of  Mars,  the  god  of  war. 


CHAPTER   XXXIV. 
America's  Conflict  With  Spain. 

A  THIRD  of  a  century  passed  after  the  great  struggle  of  the  United 
States  for  the  existence  of  the  Union,  and  then,  in  almost  the  closing 
year  of  the  nineteenth  century,  came  another  war,  this  time  fought  in 
the  interests  of  humanity.      It  was   not   a  war  for  gain  or  conquest  ;  the 
thought  of  territorial  acquisition  did  not  enter  into  the  motives  leading  to 
it,  despite    the  fact  that  this  country  gained   new   territory  as   one  of  its 
A  War  in  the       results;    in   its  inception  humane   feeling,    the    sentiment   of 
Cause  of  sympathy  with  the  oppressed   and  starving  people  of    Cuba, 

Humanity  a!One  prevailed,  and  the  nineteenth  century  fitly  reached  its 
end  with  a  war  entered  into  for  humanity's  sake  alone,  it  being  one  of  the 
very  few  instances  in  the  history  of  the  world  in  which  a  nation  has  gone  to 
war  from  purely  philanthropic  motives. 

It  is  not  necessary  here  to  repeat  the  story  of  Spain's  tyranny  in  Cuba. 
It  is  too  well  known  to  need  telling  again,  and  simply  carried  out  the 
colonial  policy  of  Spain  from  the  time  of  the  discovery  of  America.  The 
successful  rebellion  of  her  colonies  on  the  American  continent  failed  to  teach 
that  country  the  lesson  which  England  learned  from  a  similar  occurrence, 
and  in  Cuba  was  continued  the  same  system  of  tyranny  and  official 
oppression  which  had  driven  the  other  colonies  to  revolt.  The  result  was 
the  same,  Cuba  blazed  into  rebellion,  and  for  years  war  desolated  that  fair 
island. 

The  United  States,  however,  sedulously  avoided  taking  any  part  in  the 
affair  until  absolutely  driven  to  interfere  by  the  horrible  inhumanity 
displayed  by  Captain-General  Weyler.  It  was  the  awful  policy  of  "  recon- 
centration  "  that  stretched  the  forbearance  of  the  people  of  this  country  to 
the  breaking  point.  Not  content  with  fighting  the  rebels  in 
arms>  tne  brutal  Weyler  extended  the  war  against  the  people 
in  their  homes,  burning  their  houses,  destroying  the  crops  in 
their  fields,  driving  them  in  multitudes  into  the  cities  and  towns,  and  holding 
them  there  in  the  most  pitiable  destitution  and  misery  until  they  died  by 
thousands  the  terrible  death  of  starvation.  It  was  not  until  word  came  to 
this  country  that  not  less  than  200,000  of  the  helpless  people  had  perished 
496 


SENOR   MONTERO  RIOS 

President  of  the  Spanish  Peace  Commission,  whose 

painful  duty  required  him  to  sign  away  his 

country's  colonial  possessions. 


GENERAL  RAMON   BLANCO 

Who  succeeded  Weyler  as  Captain  General  of  Cuba 

in  1897.     He  was  formerly  Governor-General 

of  the  Philippine  Islands. 


ADMIRAL CERVERA  SAGASTA 

Commander  of  Spanish  Fleet  at  Santiago.  Premier  of  Spain  during  the  Spanish-American  War. 

PROMINENT   SPANIARDS,     LAST    HALF    OF   THE    NINETEENTH    CENTURY 


THEODORE  ROOSEVELT  MAJOR-GENERAL   ELWELL  S.    OTIS 

POPULAR   HEROES   OF  THE   SPANISH-AMERICAN   WAR 


AMERICA  'S  CONFLICT  WITH  SPAIN  499 

in  this  horrible  manner,  and  that  there  seemed  no  hope  of  alleviation  of  the 
frightful  situation,  that  a  practically  universal  demand  for  the  govern- 
ment to  interfere.  Spain  was  asked  to  fix  a  date  in  which  the  war  should 
be  brought  to  an  end,  with  the  intimation  that  if  the  contest -was  not  con- 
cluded or  the  independence  of  the  island  conceded  by  that  date,  this  country 
would  feel  obliged  to  take  decisive  steps. 

No  satisfactory  answer  was  received,  and  anticipations  of  war  filled  all 
minds,  though  many  hoped  that  this  dread  ultimatum  might  be  avoided, 
when,  in  the  last  week  of  January,  1898,  the  battleship  Maine  was  ordered 
to  proceed  from  Key  West  to  the  harbor  of  Havana.  Her  visit  was 
ostensibly  a  friendly  one,  but  there  had  been  riots  in  Havana  which  imperilled 
the  safety  of  American  residents,  to  whom  the  Spanish  inhabitants  of  that 
city  were  bitterly  hostile,  and  it  was  felt  that  some  show  of  force  in  that 
harbor  was  imperative. 

A  terrible  disaster  succeeded.  In  one  fatal  instant,  on  the  night  of 
February  i5th,  the  noble  ship  was  hurled  to  destruction  and  her  crew  into 
eternity.  This  frightful  event  took  place  about  9.45  in  the  evening,  while 
the  ship  lay  quietly  at  anchor  in  the  place  selected  for  her  by  the  Spanish 
authorities.  Intense  darkness  prevailed  in  the  harbor,  Captain 
Sigsbee  was  writing  in  his  cabin,  the  men  were  in  their  quar- 
ters  below,  when  of  a  sudden  came  a  terrible  explosion  that 
tore  the  vessel  asunder  and  killed  most  of  her  crew.  So  violent  was  the 
shock  that  the  whole  water-front  of  the  city  was  shaken  as  by  an  earthquake, 
telegraph  poles  were  thrown  down  and  the  electric  lights  extinguished.  The 
wrecked  vessel  sank  quickly  into  the  mud  of  the  harbor's  bottom,  and  a 
great  flame  broke  from  her  upper  works  that  illuminated  the  whole  harbor. 
Of  three  hundred  and  fifty-three  men  in  the  ship's  company  only  forty-eight 
escaped  unhurt,  and  the  roll-call  of  the  dead  in  the  end  reached  two  hun- 
dred and  sixty-six. 

This  terrible  event  was  the  immediate  cause  of  the  war.  It  intensified 
the  feeling  of  the  people  and  of  their  representatives  in  Congress  to  such 
an  extent  that  no  other  solution  of  the  difficulty  now  seemed  possible.  The 
popular  indignation  was  increased  when  the  court  of  inquiry  announced  that, 
in  its  opinion,  "the  Maine  was  destroyed  by  a  submarine  mine."  It  was 
universally  felt  that  the  disaster  was  another  instance  of  Span- 
ish malignity,  the  war-fever  redoubled,  and  Congress  unani- 
mously  voted  an  appropriation  of  $50,000,000  "  for  the  national 
defense."  The  War  and  Navy  Departments  hummed  with  the  activity  of 
recruiting,  the  preparations  of  vessels  and  coast  defenses,  and  the  purchase 
of  war  material  and  vessels  at  home,  while  agents  were  sent  to  Europe  to 


5oo  AMERICA'S  CONFLICT  WITH  SPAIN 

procure  all  the  warships  that  could  be  purchased.  Unlimited  capital  was 
at  their  command,  and  the  question  of  price  was  not  an  obstacle.  When 
hostilities  impended  the  United  States  was  unprepared  for  war,  but  by 
amazing  activity,  energy  and  skill  the  preparations  were  pushed  and  com- 
pleted with  a  rapidity  that  approached  the  marvelous. 

Negotiations  went  on,  it  is  true,  but  they  were  principally  with  the 
purpose  of  gaining  time  to  permit  American  citizens  to  leave  Cuba.  Con- 
sul-general Lee  left  Havana  on  April  nth,  and  on  the  same  day  President 
McKinley  sent  a  message  to  Congress  in  which  he  described  in  earnest 
terms  the  situation  in  Cuba,  reciting  the  dreadful  results  of  Weyler's  heart- 
less policy  and  asking  for  power  to  intervene.  "In  the  name  of  humanity^ 
in  the  name  of  civilization,"  he  said,  "  the  war  in  Cuba  must  stop."  On 
April  1 8th,  Congress  responded  with  a  series  of  resolutions  that  were  vir- 
tually a  declaration  of  war,  and  on  the  22d  war  actually  began, 
the  fleet  which  had  gathered  at  Key  West  being  despatched 
to  Cuba  with  orders  to  blockade  Havana  and  some  other  leading  ports. 
On  the  following  day  a  call  was  issued  for  125,000  volunteers  to  serve  in 
the  coming  conflict. 

While  it  seems  important  to  give  the  preliminary  events  that  led  to  the 
war,  we  do  not  propose  to  tell  the  story  of  the  war  itself,  but  to  confine  our- 
selves to  a  description  of  its  more  important  incidents,  in  accordance  with  the 
plan  of  this  work.  It  may  be  said  here,  however,  that  the  war  was  in  great 
part  a  naval  one,  and  gave  rise  to  naval  operations  of  intense  interest  and 
great  importance,  so  that  this  chapter  will  fitly  round  out  the  preceding  one, 
which  deals  with  the  progress  in  naval  warfare  during  the  century.  We 
there  described  the  contests  of  ironclad  ships  during  the  Civil  War.  In 
other  chapters  have  been  told  the  stories  of  the  fight  between  Austrian  and 
Italian  ironclads  at  the  battle  of  Lissa  and  of  the  Japanese  and  Chinese 
Progress  in  ironclad  fleets  at  the  battle  of  the  Yalu.  We  have  now  to  tell 
Naval  War-  the  final  events  in  naval  warfare  of  the  century,  the  epoch- 
making  contest  in  Manila  Bay,  and  the  desperate  flight  and 
fight  off  Santiago  harbor.  If  these  examples  of  ocean  warfare  be  contrasted 
with  those  between  the  Constellation  and  the  French  frigates  LJ Insurgente 
and  Vengeance  a  century  before,  they  will  place  in  striking  clearness  the 
immense  advance  in  naval  warfare  within  the  hundred  years  involved. 

Of  these  two  events  the  greatest  was  that  which  took  place  in  Manila 
Bay.  War,  it  must  be  remembered,  is  governed  by  a  different  system  of 
ethics  from  that  operative  in  peace.  Though  inhumanity  in  Cuba  was  the 
cause  of  the  war,  to  strike  the  enemy  wherever  he  could  be  found  was  the 
demand  of  prudence  and  military  science.  Spain  had  an  important  posses- 


THE  PEACE  COMMISSIONERS. 

Appointed  September  9, 1898.    Met  Spanish  Commissioners  at  Paris,  October  ist.    Treaty  of  Peace  signed  by  the  Commit* 
sioners  at  Paris,  December  loth,  and  ratified  by  the  United  States  Senate  at  Washington,  February  6th,  1899 


AMERICA'S  CONFLICT  WITH  SPAIN  503 

sion  in  the  eastern  seas,  the  Philippine  Islands,  off  the  southeastern  coast  of 
Asia.    There,  in  the  bay  of  Manila,  near  the  large  city  of  that  name,  lay  a 
Spanish  fleet,  which,  if  left  unmolested,  might  seek  our  Pacific  Coast  and  com- 
mit terrible  depredations.     In  the  harbor  of  Hong  Kong  lay  a 
squadron  of  American  war-vessels  under  Commodore  Dewey.       Dewey 
Prudence    dictated  but  one  course  under  the  circumstances. 
There  was  flashed  to  Dewey  under  sea  and  over  land  the  telegraphic  mes- 
sage to  "find  the  Spanish  fleet  and  capture  or  destroy  it."     How  Dewey 
obeyed  this  order  is  the  circumstance  with  which  we  are  now  concerned. 

He  lost  no  time.      Leaving  port  in  China  on  April  27th,  he  arrived  off 
the  entrance  to  Manila  Bay  on  the  night  of  the  3Oth.     An  island  lay  in  the 
neck  of  the  bay,  with  well-manned  batteries  on  its  shores.     It  was  probable 
that  torpedoes  had  been  planted  in  the  channel.      But  George  Dewey  had 
been  a  pupil  of  Farragut  in  the  Civil  War,  and  was  inspired    How  Dewey 
with  the  spirit  of  that  hero's  famous  order,  "  Damn   the  tor-      Entered 
pedoes!     Follow  me  !"     Past  Corregidor  Island   in  the  dark-      Manila  ** 
ness  glided   the  great   ships,  several  of   them  being   out   of    range  of    its 
.batteries  before  the  alarm  was  taken.     Then  some  shots  were  fired,  but  the 
return   fire   from   the  squadron   silenced  the   Spanish  guns   and  the  ships 
passed  safely  into  Manila  Bay. 

About  five  o'clock  on  the  morning  of  May  ist  Dewey's  fleet  swept  in 
battle-line  past  the  front  of  the  city  of  Manila,  and  soon  after  rounded  up 
in  face  of  the  Spanish  fleet,  which  extended  across  the  mouth  of  Bakoor 
Bay,  within  which  lay  the  naval  station  of  Cavite.  There  were  ten  of  the 
Spanish  ships  in  all,  with  shore  batteries  to  add  to  their  defensive  force, 
while  the  effective  American  ships  consisted  of  six,  the  cruisers  Olympia, 
Baltimore,  Raleigh,  Boston,  and  the  gunboats  Petrel  and  Concord.  The 
Spaniards  had  two  large  and  four  small  cruisers,  three  gunboats  and  an 
armed  transport.  They  were  not  equal  in  size  or  weight  of  metal  to  the 
American  vessels,  but  their  fixed  position,  their  protection 
by  shore  batteries,  and  the  acquaintance  of  their  officers  with 
the  waters  in  which  they  lay  gave  them  an  important  advan- 
tage over  the  Americans,  which  was  added  to  by  their  possession  of  torpedo 
boats  and  by  the  mines  which  they  had  planted  in  the  track  of  an  attacking 
fleet.  Dewey  and  his  men  were,  in  fact,  in  a  position  of  great  peril,  and  if 
the  Spaniards  knew  how  to  work  their  guns  none  of  them  might  leave  that 
bay  alive.  Fortunately  for  them  the  Spaniards  did  not  know  how  to  work 
their  guns. 

On  swept  the  gallant  squadron  of  assault,  the    Olympia  leading  with 
Dewey  on  the  bridge.      He  had  a  look-out  place  protected  by  steel  armor, 


504  AMERICA'S  CONFLICT  WITH  SPAIN 

but  he  preferred  to  stand  in  the  open  and  dare  all  peril  from  the  Spanish 

guns.     The  mines  were  there.     As  the  flagship  drove  onward  two  of  them 

exploded  in  her  path.      Luckily  the    nervous    hands  at    the    electric  wires 

set  them  off  too  soon.      Heedless  of  such  perils  as  this  Dewey  pursued  his 

course,  and  at  5.40  A.M.  opened  fire,  followed  by  the  remainder  of  his  ships. 

adi  From  that  moment  the  fire  was  deadly  and  continuous,  the 

Work  of  the      boom  of  the  great  guns  seconded  by  the  rattle  of  the  rapid  fire 

American         pieces  until  the  air  seemed  full  of  the  roar  of  ordnance.     The 

Spanish  returned  as  hot  a  fire,  but  by  no   means  so  effective. 

While  most  of  their  shot  were  wasted  on  the  waves,  the  bulk  of  those  from 

the  American  ships  found  a  goal,  and  death  and  destruction   reigned  in  the 

Spanish  ships  while  their  opponents  moved  on  almost  unharmed. 

Back  and  forth  across  the  Spanish  lines  swept  Dewey's  ships, 
five  times  in  all,  at  first  at  5,000  yards  distance,  then  drawing  in  to 
a  distance  of  2,000  yards.  And  during  all  this  time  the  great  guns 
roared  their  message  and  the  small  guns  poured  out  their  fiery  hail,  rending 
the  Spanish  hulls  and  carrying  death  to  their  crews,  while  the  flames 
that  shot  up  from  their  decks  told  that  another  element  of  destruction  was 
at  work.  Early  in  the  fight  two  torpedo  boats  darted  out  towards  the 
Olympia,  but  were  met  with  a  torrent  of  fire  that  sent  one  to  the  bottom 
and  drove  the  other  hastily  to  the  beach.  Then,  with  an  instinct  of  despera- 
tion, Admiral  Montojo  drove  gallantly  out  in  his  flagship,  the  Reina  Chris- 
The  Fate  of  the  Una,  with  the  purpose  of  engaging  the  Olympia  at  shorter 
Spanish  Flag-  range.  At  once  Dewey  turned  his  entire  battery  upon  her, 
shlp  and  poured  in  shot  and  shell  at  such  a  frightful  rate  that  the 

Spaniard  hastily  turned  and  fled  for  the  shelter  of  Bakoor  Bay.  But  the 
deadly  baptism  of  fire  with  which  she  had  been  met  proved  the  end  of  her 
career.  Swept  from  stern  to  stem  by  shells  as  she  fled,  she  burst  into  flames, 
which  continued  to  burn  until  she  sank  to  a  muddy  death. 

Meanwhile  the  Spanish  ships  and  batteries  returned  the  fire  vigorously, 
but  with  singular  lack  of  effect.     While  they  were  being  riddled  and  sunk, 
the    American    ships    escaped    almost    unhurt,    and    while    hundreds,    of 
The  Destruction  ^eir   crews    fell    dead   or   wounded,    not    an    American    was 
of  the  Spanish  killed  and  seven  men  alone  were   slightly  wounded.     What 
little  skill  in  aiming  the  Spaniards  possessed  was  utterly  dis- 
concerted by  the  incessant  and   deadly  American   fire,  and  their  balls  and 
shells  screamed  uselessly  through  the  air  to  plunge  into  the  waves. 

At  the  hour  of  7.35  Dewey  withdrew  from  the  fight,  that  he  might  see 
how  all  things  stood  on  his  ships  and  give  the  men  an  interval  of  rest  and 
an  opportunity  for  breakfast.  He  knew  very  well  that  the  Spaniards  must 


AMERICA'S  CONFLICT  WITH  SPAIN  505 

await  his  return.  Fight  and  flight  were  alike  taken  out  of  them.  When 
he  came  back  to  the  attack,  shortly  after  1 1  o'clock,  nearly  all  the  Spanish 
ships  were  in  flames  and  some  rested  on  the  bottom  of  the  bay.  For  an 
hour  longer  the  firing  continued  on  both  sides.  At  the  end  of  that  time  the 
batteries  were  silenced  and  the  ships  sunk,  burned,  and  deserted.  The 
great  battle  was  at  an  end,  and  Dewey  had  made  himself  the  hero  of 
the  war. 

When  the  news  of  the  result  reached  Europe,  the  naval  powers  of  the 
nations  heard  with  utter  astonishment  of  the  fighting  prowess  and  skill  of 
the  Yankees.  Anything  so  complete  in  the  way  of  a  naval  victory  the 
century  had  not  seen  before,  and  it  was  everywhere  recognized  that  a  new 
power  had  to  be  dealt  with  in  the  future  counsels  of  the  nations.  Americans, 
previously  looked  upon  almost  with  contempt  from  a  mili-  How  the  Nation 
tary  point  of  view,  suddenly  won  respect,  and  Dewey  took  Rewarded 
rank  among  the  great  ocean  fighters  of  the  century.  His  Dewey 
nation  hastened  to  honor  him  with  the  title  of  rear-admiral,  and  finally  with 
that  of  admiral,  its  highest  naval  dignity,  and  on  his  return  home  in  autumn 
of  the  following  year  he  was  received  with  an  ovation  such  as  few  Americans 
had  ever  been  given  before.  To  his  fellow  citizens  he  was  one  of  the  chief 
of  their  heroes,  and  they  could  not  do  him  honor  enough. 

The  second  notable  naval  event  of  which  we  have  spoken  took  place  off 
the  harbor  of  Santiago,  a  city  on  the  southern  coast  of  Cuba,  at  a  date  after 
that  just  described. 

The  finest  fleet  possessed  by  Spain,  that  under  the  command  of  Admiral 
Cervera,  consisted  of   four   cruisers,  the    Christobal  Colon,   plated  with    a 
complete  belt  of  6-inch  nickel  steel,  and  with  a  deck  armor  of  steel  2  to  6 
inches  thick ,  and  the  Vizcaya,  the  Almirante  Oquendo,  and  the  Infanta  Maria 
Teresa,  each  of  6890  tons,  with  loto  1 2-inch  armor  and  power-   The  Fleet  of 
ful  armament.     They  were  all  of  high   speed,  and  were   the      Admiral  Cer- 
only  vessels  of  which  any  dread  was  felt  in  the  United  States. 
With  them  were  three  torpedo  boats,  the  Terror,  the  Furor  and  the  Pluton, 
among  the  best  of  their  class,  and  dangerous  enemies  to  deal  with. 

This  fleet  lay  in  the  Cape  Verde  Islands  at  the  opening  of  the  war. 
From  there,  in  May,  it  set  sail,  causing  doubt  and  dread  in  American  coast 
cities  while  its  destination  remained  unknown,  and  yielding  relief  when  the 
news  came  that  it  had  reached  some  of  the  lower  islands  of  the  West 
Indies.  On  May  2ist  it  was  learned  that  the  dreaded  squadron  had  reached 
Santiago  and  was  safely  at  anchor  in  its  harbor. 

The  Atlantic  fleet  of  the  United  States  meanwhile  had  been   partly 
engaged  in  blockading  the  Cuban  ports,  partly  in  searching  for  Cervera's 
28 


506  AMERICA'S  CONFLICT  WITH  SPAIN 

fleet,  and  there  was  a  decided  sensation   of  relief  when   the  tidings    from 
Santiago  were  confirmed.     Thither  from  all  quarters  the  great  ships  of  the 
The  Spanish        ^eet  hastened  at  full  speed,  battleships,  cruisers,  monitors,  gun- 
Fleet  at  San-   boats,  and  craft  of  other  kinds,  and  soon  they  hung  like  grim 

birds  of  war  off  the  harbor's  mouth,  determined  that  the 
Spanish  fleet  should  never  leave  that  place  of  refuge  except  to  meet 
destruction.  To  the  battleships  of  the  fleet  was  soon  added  the  Oregon, 
which  had  made  an  admirable  journey  of  many  thousand  miles  around  the 
continent  of  South  America,  and  barely  touched  land  in  Florida  before  it 
was  off  again  to  take  part  in  the  great  blockade. 

The  story  that  follows  is,  if  given  in  all  its  details,  a  long  one,  but  we 
must  confine  ourselves  to  its  salient  points.  Admiral  Sampson,  in  command 
of  the  American  fleet,  at  first  sought  to  lock  up  the  Spaniards  in  their 
harbor  of  refuge,  by  sinking  a  coaler,  the  Merrimac,  in  the  narrow  channel  of 
Santiago  Bay.  The  work  was  gallantly  and  ably  done  by  Lieutenant  Hob- 
The  Sinking  of  son  anc^  ms  daring  crew,  but  proved  a  failure  through  causes 
the  "  Merri-  beyond  his  control.  The  Merrimac  sank  lengthwise  in  the 

channel,  and  the  passage  remained  open.  This  being  recog- 
nized, the  most  vigilant  watch  was  kept  up,  battle-ships,  cruisers,  and  gun- 
boats lying  off  the  harbor's  mouth  in  a  wide  semicircle,  with  their  lookouts 
ever  closely  on  the  watch. 

On  the  morning  of  Sunday,  July  3d,  the  long-looked  for  alarm  came, 
in  a  yell  form  the  sentinel  on  the  Brooklyn,  "There  is  a  big  ship  coming 
out  of  the  harbor  !"  A  like  alarm  was  given  on  other  ships,  and  Commodore 
Schley,  on. the  Brooklyn,  hastened  to  signal  the  fleet  and  to  give,  the  order, 
"  Clear  ship  for  action."  Almost  in  an  instant  the  lazily  swinging  fleet 
awoke  to  life  and  activity,  and  the  men  sprang  from  their  listless  Sunday 
rest  into  the  most  enthusiastic  readiness  for  duty. 

Admiral  Sampson,  unfortunately  for  him,  was  absent,  having  gone  up 
the  coast  in  the  cruiser  New  York,  and  the  direction  of  affairs  fell  to  Com- 
modore Schley.      He  was  capable  of  'meeting  the  emergency.      It  was  soon 
The  Flight  of       evident    that    Cervera's   fleet  was    coming    out,  the   flagship, 
the  Spanish      Infanta  Maria  Teresa,  in  the  lead,  the  others  following.     On 

clearing  the  harbor  headland  they  turned  west,  and  the  Amer- 
icans at  once  set  out  in  pursuit,  firing  as  they  went.  "  Full  speed  ahead  ; 
open  fire,  and  don't  waste  a  shot,"  shouted  Schley.  The  Oregon  had 
already  opened  fire  from  her  great  1 3-inch  guns,  and  was  followed  by  the 
battleships  Texas,  Indiana,  and  Iowa.  The  Brooklyn  joined  in  with  her  8- 
and  5-inch  batteries,  and  soon  a  rain  of  shells  was  pouring  upon  the  devoted 
fugitive  ships.  The  Maria  Teresa  ran  towards  the  Brooklyn  as  if  with 


AMERICA'S  CONFLICT  WITH  SPAIN  507 

intention  to  ram  her,  but  the  danger  was  avoided  by  a  quick  swerve  of  the 
helm,  and  Cervera's   flagship  turned  again  and  sped  away  in  flight. 

The  fugitive  ships  soon  found  themselves  the  centre  of  the  most  terrific 
fire  any  war  vessels  had  ever  endured,  with  the  exceptian  of   A  Hot  Chase 
those  at  Manila.    Big  guns  and  little  guns  joined  in  the  fright-      Down  the 
ful  concert,  shot  after  shot  telling,  while  the  response  of  the      Cuban  Coa5t 
Spaniards  was  little  more  effective  than  that  of  their  compatriots  in  Manila 
Bay.     One   man   killed   on   the   Brooklyn  was  the  sole  loss  of  life  on  the 
American  side,  while  the  unfortunate  Spaniards  were  swept  down  by  hun- 
dreds. 

The  first  ship  to  succumb  to  this  hail  of  shells  was  the  Maria  Teresa,  which 
quickly  burst  into  flames,  and  soon  after  ran  ashore.  Then  the  Brooklyn, 
Oregon  and  Indiana  concentrated  their  fire  on  the  Almirante  Oquendo, 
which  was  similarly  beached  in  flames.  Next  the  Vizcaya  drew  abeam  of 
the  Iowa,  which  turned  its  fire  from  the  Oquendo  to  this  new  quarry,  pour- 
ing in  shells  that  tore  great  rents  in  her  side,  while  the  Vizcaya  fired  back 
hotly  but  uneffectively.  As  the  Spaniard  drew  ahead  of  the 
Iowa,  the  fire  of  the  Oregon  and  Texas  reached  her,  and 
an  8-inch  shell  from  the  Brooklyn  raked  her  fore  and  aft.  The 
next  moment  a  great  shell  exploded  in  her  interior,  killing  eighty  men.  She 
was  clearly  out  of  the  race,  and  ran  in  despair  for  the  beach. 

Meanwhile  the  Christobal  Colon  was  running  at  great  speed  along  the 
beach,  pursued  by  the  American  ships.  Of  these  the  Oregon  and  Brooklyn 
alone  were  able  to  keep  within  hopeful  distance.  For  an  hour  the  chase 
kept  up,  then  the  Oregon  tried  a  1 3-inch  shell,  which  struck  the  water  close 
astern  of  the  Colon,  four  miles  away.  Another  was  tried  and  reached  its 
mark.  Soon  after  a  shell  from  the  Brooklyn  pierced  the  Colon  at  the  top 
of  her  armor  belt.  Then  she  too  gave  up  and  ran  for  the  beach,  Admiral 
Sampson,  on  the  New  York,  reaching  the  scene  in  time  only  to  receive  the 
surrender  of  her  officers. 

Perhaps  the  most  telling  work  of  the  day  was  that  done  by  the  little 
Gloucester,  a  yacht  turned  into  a  gunboat,  which  was  commanded  by 
Richard  Wainwright,  one  of  the  surviving  officers  of  the  The "  Glouces- 
Maine.  Two  torpedo-boat  destroyers  had  followed  the  Span-  ter"and  Her 
ish  ships  from  the  harbor,  and  these  were  gallantly  attacked  Work 
and  sunk  by  Wainwright  in  his  little  craft,  thus  finally  disposing  of  the 
second  Spanish  fleet  with  which  the  Yankees  came  into  contact. 

The  annals  of  naval  history  record  no  more  complete  destruction  of  an 
enemy's  fleet  than  in  the  two  cases  we  have  described,  and  never  has  such 


5o8  AMERICA'S  CONFLICT  WITH  SPAIN 

work  been   done  with  so  little  loss — only  one  man  being  killed  and  a  few 

wounded  in  both  American  fleets.      It  taught  the  world  a  new 

The  Lesson  of      iessOn    in    the    art    of    naval    warfare,    and    admonished    the 

the  War 

nations  that  the  United  States  was  a  power  to  be  gravely  con- 
sidered in  the  future  in  any  question  of  war. 

We  have  told  the  only  incidents  of  this  short  war  with  which  we  are 
concerned.  In  the  conflict  on  land  there  was  nothing  of  special  character. 
An  American  army  landed  near  Santiago  and  fought  its  fight  to  a  quick  finish 
in  the  capture  of  that  city;  and  a  similar  story  is  to  be  told  of  Manila; 
while  the  attempted  conquest  of  Porto  Rico  was  cut  short  in  the  middle  by 
the  signing  of  a  peace  protocol.  In  December  a  treaty  of  peace  was  signed 
in  which  Spain  abandoned  her  colonies  of  Cuba  and  Porto  Rico,  the  latter 
being  ceded  to  the  United  States,  while  the  Philippine  Islands,  the  scene  of 
Dewey's  great  victory,  were  likewise  ceded  to  this  country.  The  latter, 
however,  was  not  to  the  pleasure  of  the  island  people,  who  took  up  arms  to 
fight  for  freedom  from  the  dominion  of  the  whites. 

Brief  as  was  the  war,  it  had  the  effect  of  radically  changing  the  posi- 
tion of  the  United  States,  which  for  the  first  time  in  its  history  became  a 
The  United  colonial  power,  and  acquired  an  interest  in  that  troublesome 
states  Made  Eastern  Question  which  reached,  at  the  end  of  the  century, 
a  highly  critical  stage.  Into  what  complication  this  new 
political  relation  is  likely  to  lead  the  republic  of  the  West. 
it  is  impossible  to  say,  but  this  country  will  certainly  play  its  part  in  the 
shaping  of  the  future  destiny  of  the  East. 


CHAPTER  XXXV. 

The    Dominion    of   Canada. 

OCCUPYING  the  northern  section  of  the  western  hemisphere  lies 
Great  Britain's  most  extended  colony,  the  vast  Dominion  of  Canada, 
which  covers  an  immense  area  of  the  earth's  surface,  surpassing 
that  of  the  United  States,  and  nearly  equal  to  the  whole  of  Europe.  Its 
population,  however,  is  not  in  accordance  with  its  dimensions,  being  less 
than  5,000,000,  while  the  bleak  and  inhospitable  character  of  The  Area  and 
much  the  greater  part  of  its  area  is  likely  to  debar  it  from  Population  of 
ever  having  any  other  than  a  scanty  nomad  population,  fur  Canada 
animals  being  its  principal  useful  product.  It  is,  however,  always  unsafe 
to  predict.  The  recent  discovery  of  gold  in  a  part  of  this  region,  that 
traversed  by  the  Klondike  River,  has  brought  miners  by  the  thousands  to 
that  wintry  realm,  and  it  would  be  very  unwise  to  declare  that  the  remainder 
of  the  great  northern  region  contains  no  treasures  for  the  craving  hands 
of  man. 

It  is  the  development  of  Canada  during  the  nineteenth  century  with 
which  we  are  here  concerned,  and  we  must  confine  ourselves,  as  in  the  case 
of  the  other  countries  treated,  to  its  salient  points,  those  upon  which  the 
problem  of  its  progress  turns.      First  settled  by  the  French  in  the  seven- 
teenth century,  this  country  came  under  British  control  in    1763,  as  a  result 
of  the  great  struggle  between  the  two  active  colonizing  powers  for  domi- 
nion  in  America.     The  outcome  of  this  conquest  is  the  fact 
that  Canada,  like  the  other  colonies  of  Great  Britain,  possesses      History 
a  large  alien   population,  in  this  case  of  French  origin  ;  and  it 
may  further    be    said    that  the    conflict    between    EngHnd    and   France    in 
America  is  not  yet  at  an  end,  since  political  warfare,  varied  by  an  occasional 
act  of  open  rebellion,  has  been   maintained  throughout  the  century  by  the 
French  Canadians. 

The  revolution  of  1775  in  the  colonies  to  the  south  failed  to  gain  adhe- 
rents in  Canada,  which  remained  loyal  to  Great  Britain  and  repelled  every 
attempt  to  invade  its  territory.  It  met  invasion  in  the  war  of  1812  in  the 
same  spirit,  and  despite  the  fact  that  there  has  long  been  a  party  favoring 

509 


£T0  THE  DOMINION  OF  CANADA 

annexation  to  the  United  States,  the  Canadians  as  a  whole  are  to-day 
among  the  most  loyal  colonial  subjects  of  the  home  government  of  Great 
Britain.  , 

At  the  opening  of  the  nineteenth  century  the  population  of  Canada 
was  small,  and  its  resources  were  only  slightly  developed.  Its  people  did  not 
reach  the  million  mark  until  about  1840,  though  since  then  the  tide  of 
immigration  has  flowed  thither  with  considerable  strength  and  the  popula- 
tion has  grown  with  some  rapidity.  In  i  791  the  original  province  of  Quebec 
was  divided  into  Upper  and  Lower  Canada,  a  political  separation  which  by 
no  means  gave  satisfaction,  but  led  to  severe  political  conflicts.  As  a  result 
an  act  of  union  took  place,  the  provinces  being  reunited  in  1840. 

Upper  Canada,  at  the  opening  of  the  century,  was  only  slightly  devel- 
oped, the  country  being  a  vast  forest,  without  towns,  without  roads,  and 
practically  shut  out  from  the  remainder  of  the  world.  The 
'tower  Canada  sParse  population  endured  much  suffering,  which,  in  1788, 
deepened  into  a  destructive  famine,  long  remembered  as  a 
terrible  visitation.  But  it  began  to  grow  with  the  new  century,  numbers 
crossed  the  Niagara  River  from  the  States  to  the  fertile  lands  beyond, 
immigrants  crossed  the  waters  from  Great  Britain  and  France,  Toronto 
was  made  the  capital  city,  and  the  population  of  the  province  soon  rose  to 
30,000  in  number.  Lower  Canada,  however,  with  its  old  cities  of  Quebec 
and  Montreal,  and  its  flourishing  settlements  along  the  St.  Lawrence  River, 
continued  the  most  populous  section  of  the  country,  though  its  people  were 
almost  exclusively  of  French  origin.  The  strength  of  the  British  population 
lay  in  the  upper  province. 

These  historical  particulars  are  desirable  as  a  statement  of  the  position 
and  relations  of  Canada  at  the  opening  of  the  nineteenth  century,  though 
in  the  succeeding  history  of  the  country  only  an  occasional  event  occurred 
of  sufficiently  striking  character  to  fit  into  our  plan.  We  have  already 
detailed  the  events  of  the  war  of  1812  on  the  Canada  frontier,  in  which  the 
capture  and  burning  of  York  (now  Toronto)  served  as  an  excuse  for  the 
subsequent  indefensible  burning  of  Washington  by  the  British.  Battles 
were  fought  on  Canadian  soil  in  1814  at  Chippewa  and  Lundy's  Lane — the 
latter  the  bloodiest  battle  of  the  war.  But  though  the  Ameri- 

The  War  of  1812  , 

cans  were  victorious  in  these  engagements,  they  soon  alter 
withdrew  from  Canada — to  which  they  have  never  since  returned  in  a  hostile 
way.  Many  political  complications  have  arisen  between  the  two  countries, 
and  at  times  sharp  words  have  been  spoken,  but  all  the  questions  have  been 
amicably  settled  and  the  two  countries  remain  fairly  good  friends,  with  only 
such  disputes  as  too  close  neighborhood  is  apt  to  provoke. 


THE  DOMINION  OF  CANADA  5II 

The  leader  of  public  opinion  in  Canada  during  the  three  years'  struggle 
with  the  United  States  was  a  clergyman  of  the  English  church  John 
Strachan,  rector  of  York.  Though  a  clergyman  of  the  English  establish- 
ment, Strachan  was  by  birth  a  Scotchman,  and  a  decidedly  pugnacious  and 
determined  character,  a  man  of  courage,  persistence,  cunning  and  political 
skill,  whose  ambition  drove  him  forward,  until,  with  his  party, 

'  J '    John  Strachan 

he   formed    in    1820  what  was  long   known  as  the  "Family      and  the 
Compact,"  which  for  years  ruled  the  country  in  an  autocratic      Family  Com  - 
way.     The  governor  and  council  were  the  tools  of  Strachan      pac 
and  his  allies  ;  they  filled  the  public  offices  with  their  favorites,  and  went  so 
far  as  to  drive  Robert  Gourlay,  an  honest  and  capable  business  man,  from 
the  country,  because  he  was  so  presumptuous  as  to  reflect  on  the  character 
of  their  administration. 

In  1824  their  power  was  for  a  time  overturned.  William  Lyon 
Mackenzie,  a  Scotchman  of  impetuous  disposition,  started  the  Colonial 
Advocate  newspaper,  which  opposed  the  "Compact  "so  vigorously  as  to 
arouse  the  hatred  of  its  adherents.  The  office  of  the  Advocate  was  gutted 
by  a  mob,  but  Mackenzie  recovered  large  damages,  an  opposition  Assembly 
was  elected,  and  the  Family  Compact  fell  from  power.  Strachan  however, 
was  only  temporarily  defeated.  A  religious  quarrel  arose 
which  lasted  for  thirty  years,  and  in  which  he  played  the  leading 
part.  This  turned  upon  the  use  of  what  was  known  as  the 
"clergy  reserve  fund,"  an  allotment  of  one-seventh  of  the  crown  lands  for 
the  support  of  a  Protestant  clergy.  A  portion  of  this  fund  was  demanded 
by  a  Scotch  Presbyterian  congregation,  but  Strachan,  who  had  a  controlling 
voice  in  its  disposition,  claimed  it  all  for  the  English  Established  Church,  and 
entered  into  this  new  fight  with  all  his  old  energy.  He  gained  strong  sup- 
port, was  promoted  to  the  dignity  of  a  bishop,  founded  King's  College  from 
part  of  the  fund,  and,  in  1853  obtained  a  transfer  of  the  fund — which  had  been 
placed  at  the  disposal  of  the  British  Parliament  for  religious  purposes — to 
Canada.  The  controversy  was  finally  settled  in  1854,  an  act  being  passed 
which  secured  their  life  interests  to  the  clergy  already  enjoying  them,  while 
the  remainder  of  the  fund  was  devoted  to  public  education. 

Xhus  for  forty  years  and  more  John  Strachan  made  himself  the  most 
prominent  and  powerful  figure  in  Upper  Canada.  Meanwhile  a  strained 
condition  of  affairs  existed  in  Lower  Canada,  due  to  the  rivalry  and  struggle 
for  power  of  the  inhabitants  of  French  and  British  descent.  The  strife 
became  so  intense  as  in  1837  to  lead  to  open  rebellion. 

The  great  supremancy  of  the  French  in  numbers  gave  them  a  decided 
majority  in  the  Assembly,  and  for  years  Louis  Papineau  was  elected  by 


5I3  THE  DOMINION  OF  CANADA 

them  speaker  of  that  body,  though  bitterly  opposed  by  the  British  popula- 
tion. When  Lord  Dalhousie,  the  governor-general,  refused  to  recognize 
him  in  this  position,  sufficient  influence  was  brought  to  bear  upon  the  home 
French  Suprem-  government  to  have  the  autocratic  lord  transferred  to  India, 
acy  in  Lower  and  the  French  retained  their  control  of  the  Assembly.  A 
Canada  reform  in  the  government  of  the  province  was  recommended 

by  a  committe  of  the  British  Parliament,  which  resulted  in  1832  in  giving 
the  Assembly  control  of  the  local  finances. 

This  gave  the  French  Canadians  a  perilous  power,  and  they  endeavored 
to  rid  themselves  of  the  English  judges  and  civil  officials  by  a  process  of 
financial  starvation.  Salaries  were  unpaid  and  the  government  was  blocked 
through  lack  of  funds.  The  sharpness  of  the  strife  was  added  to  by  resolu- 
tions in  the  British  Parliament  which  condemned  the  Canadian  legislature 
and  supported  the  council — an  arbitrary  body  under  the  governor's  control, 
and  in  the  British  interest. 

The  strife  eventually  deepened  into  revolt.  Both  provinces  vigorously 
demanded  that  the  council  should  be  chosen  by  the  votes  of  the  people,  and 
thus  truly  represent  the  country.  Lower  Canada  became  violently  excited 
on  this  question  ;  funds  known  as  "  Papineau  tribute  "  were  collected  ;  the 
liberty  cap  was  worn ;  imported  goods  were  replaced  by  homespun  clothes, 
and  military  training  soon  began.  These  movements  were  followed  by 
hostile  acts,  the  English  "Constitutionalists"  and  the  French  "  Sons  of 
Liberty  "  coming  into  warlike  contact.  But  Sir  John  Colborne,  the  governor, 
was  a  man  of  energy  and  decision,  and  quickly  brought  the 
The  Revolt  of  incipient  rebellion  to  an  end.  The  insurgents  were  attacked 
and  dispersed  wherever  they  showed  themselves,  Dr.  Nelson, 
one  of  their  leaders,  was  captured,  and  Papineau,  the  head  of  the  revolt,  was 
obliged  to  escape  across  the  border. 

This  movement  in  Lower  Canada  was  accompanied  by  a  similar  revolt 
in  Upper  Canada  under  the  leadership  of  William  Lyon  Mackenzie,  the 
former  opponent  of  the  Family  Compact.  He,  as  a  leader  of  the  opposition 
forces,  had  continued  bitterly  to  oppose  the  oligarchy  which  controlled 
Canadian  affairs.  Three  times  he  was  elected  to  the  Assembly  of  Upper 
Canada,  and  three  times  expelled  by  the  tyrannical  majority.  The  law 
officers  of  Great  Britain  pronounced  his  expulsion  illegal,  and  he  was  re- 
elected  by  a  large  majority,  but  the  arbitrary  Assembly  again  refused  to 
admit  him. 

The  result  of  this  unlawful  action  was  to  make  him  highly  popular,  he 
was  elected  the  first  mayor  of  Toronto,  and  the  struggle  went  on  more 
bitterly  than  ever.  An  unlucky  expression  he  had  used — "  The  baneful 


THE  DOMINION  OF  CANADA  513 

domination  of  the  mother  country " — was  now  quoted  against  him  as 
evidence  of  disloyalty,  and  Mackenzie,  exasperated  by  the  acts  of  his 
enemies,  lost  his  self-control  and  entered  into  rebellion.  He  made  a  com- 
pact with  Louis  Papineau  to  head  a  rising  in  Toronto  on  the 
same  day  with  the  insurgent  rising  in  Montreal.  In  furtherance 
of  this  he  proclaimed  a  "  Provisional  Government  of  the 
State  of  Upper  Canada,"  gathered  a  force  of  eight  hundred  men,  and 
threatened  Toronto  with  capture.  But  hesitation  was  fatal  to  his  cause, 
his  men  were  attacked  and  dispersed,  and  he  was  forced  to  flee.  On  Navy 
Island  he  flung  the  flag  of  rebellion  to  the  breeze,  but  he  had  lost  his  one 
opportunity  and  the  flag  soon  went  down.  Lack  of  prudence  and  patience 
had  put  an  end  to  a  promising  political  career. 

The  suppression  of  this  rebellion  was  followed  in  1840  by  the  Act  of 
Union  of  the  two  provinces  already  mentioned.    The  population  now  began 
to  grow  with  considerable  rapidity.      From  about  1,100,000  in  1840,  it  grew 
to  nearly  2,000,000  in  1850,  and  2,500,000  in   1860.     And  the   Qrowthof 
people  were  spreading  out  widely  northward  and  westward,       Population 
settling   new  lands,    and   stretching    far  towards  the    Pacific      and  industry 
border.     The  industries  of  Canada,  which  had  been  greatly  depressed  by 
the  adoption  of  free  trade   in   Great  Britain,  were  revived   by  a  treaty  of 
reciprocity  in  trade  with  the  United  States,  and  prosperity  came  upon  the 
country  in  a  flood. 

But  political  troubles  were  by  no  means  at  an  end,  and  much  irritation 
arose  from  acts  of  citizens  of  the  United  States  during  the  Civil  War. 
Refugees  and  conspirators  from  the  south  sought  the  Canadian  cities,  and 
endeavored  to  involve  the  two  countries  in  hostile  relations.  Fenian  raids 
were  attempted  from  the  United  States,  and  there  was  much  alarm,  though 
nothing  of  importance  arose  from  the  disturbed  condition  of  affairs. 

In  time  the  confederation  which  existed  between  the  two  larger  pro- 
vinces of  Canada  became  too  narrow  to  serve  the  purposes  of  the  entire 
colony.  The  maritime  provinces  began  to  discuss  the  question  of  local 
federation,  and  it  was  finally  proposed  to  unite  all  British  North  America 
into  one  general  union.  This  was  done  in  1867,  the  British  Parliament 
passing  an  act  which  created  the  "Dominion  of  Canada."  organization  of 
The  new  confederation  included  Ontario  (Upper  Canada),  the  Dominion 
Quebec  (Lower  Canada),  New  Brunswick  and  Nova  Scotia.  of  Canada 
Four  years  later  Manitoba  and  British  Columbia  were  included,  and  Prince 
Edward's  Island  in  1874.  A  parliament  was  formed  consisting  of  a  Senate 
of  life  members  chosen  by  the  prime  minister  and  an  Assembly  elected  by 
the  people.  The  formation  of  the  dominion  was  soon  followed  by  trouble, 


5i4  THE  DOMINION  OF  CANADA 

this  time  arising  in  the  Indian  country,  over  which  the  Canadian  people 
had  rapidly  extended  their  authority.  Louis  Riel,  son  of  the  leader  of  the 
Metes  (half-breed)  Indians,  headed  a  rebellion  in  1869  and  established  a 

provisional  governmei.t  at  Fort  Garry.      In  the  following;  year 
The  Riel  Revolts  r,  111  u  •      i       r    r  \    \\T    1      i 

the  revolt   collapsed  on   the  arrival  ol    General   Wolseley  at 

this  fort.  Twice  in  later  years  Riel  attempted  rebellion,  the  second  time 
in  1885.  He  was  finally  captured  and  executed,  and  the  rebellious  senti- 
ment vanished  with  his  death. 

Shortly  after  the  formation  of  the  dominion,  Sir  John  Macdonald 
became  a  conspicuous  figure  in  Canadian  politics  and  for  many  years  served 
as  prime  minister  of  the  country.  He  took  part  in  the  treaty  of  Washing- 
ton, which  referred  to  arbitration  of  the  Alabama  claim  and  other  questions 
between  Great  Britain  and  the  United  States,  and  came  near  defeat  in  con- 
sequence, since  the  parts  of  the  treaty  which  referred  to  Canada  were  very 
unpopular  in  that  country.  He  was  defeated  in  1873  on  the  question  of  the 
Canadian  Pacific  Railway,  concerning  which  a  great  scandal  had  arisen, 
with  suspicion  of  wholesale  bribery.  In  1878  Macdonald  returned  to  the 
premiership,  which  he  continued  to  hold  until  his  death  in  1891. 

Despite  the  scandal  attending  the  Pacific  Railway  bill,  that  enterprise 
was  pushed  forward  with  much  energy,  and,  after  desperate  financial  strug- 
gles, was  completed  in  1886.  It  need  scarcely  be  said  that  it  has  since 
played  a  highly  important  part  in  the  development  of  Canada.  Under  the 
The  Canadian  liberal  ministry  of  Alexander  Mackenzie  (1873-78)  the  coun- 
Pacific  Rail-  try  prospered  greatly  for  a  time,  but  a  period  of  financial 
stringency  followed,  and  the  people  demanded  commerical  pro- 
tection. This  was  given  by  the  Conservatives,  under  Macdonald,  in  1879,  a 
protective  tariff  being  adopted  as  a  measure  of  defence  against  the  commer- 
ical enterprise  of  the  United  States.  The  result  was  a  rapid  revival  of  trade 
and  wide-spread  prosperity.  In  1880,  by  an  act  of  the  British  Parliament, 
the  control  of  all  the  British  possessions  in  Canada — except  Newfoundland, 
which  had  not  joined  the  Union — was  transferred  to  the  Dominion  Parlia- 
ment, and  the  country  became  in  large  measure  an  independent  nation. 

The  important  questions  which  have  since  that  time  arisen  in  Canada 
have  had  largely  to  do  with  its  relations  to  the  United  States  and  its 
people.  One  of  the  most  troublesome  of  these  has  been  the  question  of 
the  fisheries  on  the  banks  of  Newfoundland  and  the  coasts  of 
Nova  Scotia  and  New  Brunswick.  For  years  the  problem 
of  the  rights  of  American  fishermen  on  the  Canadian  coast 
excited  controversy.  In  1877  tne  Halifax  Fishery  Commission  awarded 


THE  DOMINION  OF  CANADA  5I- 

$5,500,00010  Great  Britain,  to  pay  for  the  privileges  granted  to  the  United 
States,  and  in  1888  a  treaty  was  signed  for  the  settlement  of  this  vexa- 
tious question. 

The  temporary  removal  of  this  difficulty  was  followed  by  the  develop- 
ment of  a  still  more  serious  fishery  controversy  between  the  two  countries, 
that  relating  to  the  fur-seal  fishery  of  Alaska.  The  fur-seals,  frequenting 
the  Pribylof  Islands  of  the  Bering  Sea  for  breeding  purposes,  belonged  tor 
the  United  States,  which  rented  out  the  right  of  killing  seals  on  these  islands 
to  the  Alaska  Commercial  Company,  whose  killing  privileges  were  restricted 
to  100,000  yearly.  But  these  seals  had  a  wide  range  of  excursion  at  sea, 
and  Canadian  fishermen  began  to  prey  upon  them  in  the  open  waters. 
These  depredations,  beginning  in  1886,  reduced  the  herds  by 

1890  to  such  an  extent  that  the  Alaska  Company  could  secure   T1Jf  Fur;SeaI 
.  .        .       ,  ^,  /  f       Question 

only  21,000  skins  in  that  year.      1  here  was  serious  danger  of 

the  extermination  of  the  animals,  and  the  United  States  took  active 
measures  to  prevent  poaching  on  its  preserves,  as  it  regarded  the  work  of  the 
Canadians.  The  controversy  on  this  question  became  strenuous  as  time 
went  on,  and  it  was  seriously  thought  at  one  time  that  the  easiest  way  out 
of  the  difficulty  would  be  to  kill  all  the  seals  at  once  and  so  put  an  end  to  the 
problem.  Finally  the  two  nations  concerned  agreed  to  submit  the  question 
to  arbitration,  and  a  decision  was  rendered  in  1893,  establishing  a  "  protected 
zone"  of  sixty  miles  around  the  Pribylof  Islands.  Unfortunately  the  ocean 
range  of  the  seals  is  much  wider  than  this,  and  the  diminution  of  the  herd 
has  still  gone  on.  The  difficulty,  therefore,  remains  unsettled. 

Sir  John  Macdonald  died  in  1891  and  Sir  John  S.  D.  Thompson,  a  man 
of  marked  ability,  became  premier  in  1892.  He  lived,  however,  only  until 
1894  and  for  a  brief  interval  Sir  Charles  Tupper  filled  the  office.  Before 
the  end  of  the  year  he  resigned,  and  Sir  Wilfred  Laurier  became  premier, 
he  being  the  first  French  Canadian  to  hold  that  high  office.  The  most 
important  questions  rising  under  his  administration  were  those  springing 
from  the  discovery  of  gold  on  the  Klondike  River.  This  find 


was  made  in  the  autumn  of  1896,  and  as  reports  quickly  spread 


of  the  richness  of  the  diggings,  a  rush  of  miners,  mainly 
Americans,  took  place  during  the  following  year.  But  it  was  quickly 
perceived  that  the  region  was  not  in  Alaska,  as  at  first  supposed,  but 
in  Canadian  territory,  and  mining  laws  were  imposed  by  the  Canadian  govern- 
ment, including  heavy  fees  and  royalties,  which  were  bitterly  objected  to 
by  the  American  miners. 

But  the  chief  question  arising  from  the  find  was  that  concerning  the 
true  boundary  between  the  two  countries.     This  had    never   been  clearly 


5l6  THE  DOMINION  OF  CANADA 

decided  upon  for  the  southern  section  of  Alaska,  and  the  natural  desire  of 
Canada  to  obtain  an  ocean  outing  for  the  new  gold  district,  which  was  being 
very  rapidly  settled,  soon  stirred  up  a  very  active  controversy. 

The  claim  of  Russia,  transferred  by  purchase  to  the  United  States, 
called  for  a  strip  of  land  ten  leagues  wide  from  the  coast  backward.  This 
would  have  been  definite  enough  had  it  been  quite  clear  what  constituted 
the  coast.  The  sea  line  of  Alaska  is  marked  by  deep  indentations,  some  of 
which  are  open  to  question  as  to  whether  they  should  be  considered  oceanic 
or  inland  waters.  Such  a  one  is  Lynn  Canal,  which  affords  the  natural 
waterway  to  the  mountain  passes  leading  to  the  upper  Yukon,  by  whose 
waters  the  gold  district  can  be  .most  easily  reached.  This 
inlet,  running  sixty  miles  into  the  land,  is  less  than  six  miles 
wide  at  its  mouth  ;  and  while  the  United  States  claimed 
that  it  was  part  of  the  open  sea,  the  Canadian  government  looked  upon  it 
as  territorial  water,  and  demanded  that  the  coast  line  should  be  drawn 
across  its  mouth.  This  would  have  given  Canada  control  of  its  upper 
waters  and  the  access  to  the  sea  from  the  Klondike  region  over  its  own 
territory  which  it  so  urgently  needed.  It  would  also  have  given  it  pos- 
session of  Dyea  and  Skagua,  two  mining  towns  built  and  peopled  by 
Americans  at  the  head  of  the  canal,  and  whose  people  would  have  bitterly 
opposed  being  made  citizens  of  Canada. 

As  will  be  perceived  from  the  above  statement  a  number  of  interna- 
tional  questions   had   arisen   between    the   United    States   and   Canada,    of 
which  only  the  most  urgent  have  here  been  mentioned.      In  1898  an  earnest 
attempt  was  made  to  adjust  these  annoying  problems,  by  the  appointment 
of  an  International  Commission,  whose  sessions  began  in  the  city  of  Quebec, 
August  23,  1898.     On  the   part  of  Great  Britain  and  Canada  the  member- 
An  interim-         S^P    consisted    of    Lord    Herschell,    ex-Lord    Chancellor    of 
tional  Com-       England,    chairman,    Sir    Wilfred    Laurier,    the     Premier    of 
mission  Canada,   Sir  Richard  J.   Cartwright,    Minister   of   Trade   and 

Commerce,  Sir  Louis  H.  Davies,  Minister  of  Marine  and  Fisheries,  John 
Charlton,  M.  P.,  and  Sir  James  T.  Winter,  Premier  of  Newfoundland.  The 
American  members  were  Charles  W.  Fairbanks,  United  States  Senator 
from  Indiana,  chairman,  George  Gray,  Senator  from  Delaware,  Nelson 
Dingley,  Representative  from  Maine,  John  W.  Foster,  former  Secretary  of 
State  and  ex-Minister  to  Spain,  Russia  and  Mexico,  John  A.  Kasson,  former 
Minister  to  Germany  and  Austria,  and  T.  Jefferson  Coolidge,  former  Min- 
ister to  France.  Senator  Gray  resigned  in  September,  to  take  part  in  Peace 
Commission  on  the  Spanish  War,  and  was  succeeded  by  Senator  Charles  J 
Faulkner,  of  West  Virginia. 


THE  DOMINION  OF  CANADA  5!7 

The  principal  questions  that  came  before  this   Commission  for  con- 
sideration were  the  following- :  The  adjustment  of  the  difficulties  concern- 
ing the  Atlantic  and  Pacific  coast  fisheries  and  those  still  arising  in  reference 
to  the  fur-seals  ;    the  establishment  of  a  fixed   boundary  between  Alaska 
and  Canada  ;   provision  for  the   transit  of   merchandise  to  or  from  either 
country  across  territory  of  the  other,  or  to  be  delivered   at 
points  in  either  country  beyond  the  frontier;  the  questions  of   TheQuestlons 
labor  laws  and   mining  rights  affecting  the  subjects  of  either 
country  within  the  territory  of  the  other ;  a  mutually  satisfactory  readjust- 
ment of  customs  duties  ;  an  understanding  concerning  the  placing  of  war 
vessels  on  the  great  lakes  ;  arrangements  to  define  and  mark  the  frontier 
line ;  provision  for  the  conveyance  of  accused  persons  by  officers   of  one 
country    through  the  territory  of  the  other ;  and   reciprocity  in   wrecking 
and  salvage  rights. 

As  will  be  perceived  from  this  list  of  subjects   to  be   considered,  the 
High  Commission  had  abundance  of  work  mapped  out  for  it.     While  some 
of    the   questions   were  of    minor  importance   and    might    be    settled  with 
comparative  ease,  others  were  of  high  significance  and  likely  to  prove  very 
difficult  to  adjust.      In  fact,  they  proved  beyond  the  powers  of  the  commis- 
sion.    Adjourning    from  Quebec   to  meet  in  Washington    in    The  Fai|ure  of 
November,  the  members  continued  in  session  there  for  several      the  Commis- 
months  longer,  but  adjourned  finally  in  the  spring  of  1899  with- 
out having  been  able  to  come  to  a  decision  on  the  difficult  matters  involved. 

Several  of    these   questions,   indeed,  were  of    the    most    complex    and 
vexatious   character,  particularly  that  relating  to   the   fisheries,  which   had 
been  a  source  of  trouble  and  conflict   through  most  of  the   century.     As 
respects  the  transport  of  goods   of  one  country  over  the  territory  of  the 
other,  it  is  a   matter  of  much  importance  to  Canada,  which    sends   great 
quantities  of   goods   over    United    States    territory    for   shipment    abroad, 
six  times  more  Canadian  grain,  for  instance,  going  by  way  of  Buffalo,  than 
via  Montreal   and   the  St.  Lawrence.     The  problem  of  reciprocal   customs 
regulations  is  also  one  of  much  importance  to  Canada,  which  imports  more 
merchandise    from    the    United    States    than   is  sent  by  that    Commerce  of 
country    to    all    the  remainder   of   the   American    Continent,       Canada  with 
amounting  in  all  to  about  $70,000,000  annually.      In  return      the  United 
its  exports  to  the  United  States  amount  to  about  $50,000,000, 
the  total  commerce   being   of  importance  enough   to  call  for  special  tariff 
regulations  between  the  two  countries. 

After  the  adjournment  of  the  commission,  efforts  were  made  to  adjust 
the  boundary  question,  so   far  as  Lynn  Canal  was  concerned,  through  an 


5l3  THE  DOMINION  OF  CANADA 

understanding  between  the  two  governments.  The  United  States,  in  con- 
sideration of  the  needs  of  Canada  in  the  Klondike  region,  showed  a  disposi- 
tion to  concede  temporarily  to  that  country  a  tidewater  port  in  the  Lynn 
Canal.  But  decided  protests  from  commercial  ports  on  the  Pacific  seaboard 
caused  the  withdrawal  of  the  proposed  concession.  A  temporary  adjust- 
ment of  the  question  was  subsequently  made,  a  line  being  drawn  by  officials 
of  the  two  countries  which  followed  the  mountian  summits  and  cut  off 
Canada  from  access  to  the  sea  except  accross  United  States  territory. 

The  progress  of  Canada  during  the  past  quarter  of  a  century  has  been 
very  great,  while  her  population  has  increased  in  that  period  by  nearly  one- 
half.  Railways  have  spread  like  a  network  over  the  rich  agricultural  terri- 
tory along  the  southern  border  land  of  the  dominion,  from 
ressfin  Canada  ocean  to  ocean,  and  are  now  pushing  into  the  deep  forest  land 
and  rich  mineral  regions  of  the  interior  and  the  northwest, 
their  total  length  in  1899  being  over  17,000  miles,  a  large  mileage  fora 
population  of  5,000,000.  The  most  recent  railway  projected  is  one  to  the 
Klondike  region,  which  already  has  a  large  population,  and  possesses  in 
Dawson  City  a  thriving  and  enterprising  headquarters  of  the  mining  region. 
Canada  has  also  been  active  in  canal  building,  and  has  now  under  consider- 
ation a  project  of  the  highest  importance,  namely,  the  excavation  of  a  ship- 
canal  from  Lake  Huron  to  the  St.  Lawrence.  This  great  enterprise,  if 
carried  into  effect,  will  shorten  the  distance  of  commercial  navigation  by 
hundreds  of  miles  and  be  of  untold  advantage  to  the  Canadian  common- 
wealth. It  is  proposed  also  to  deepen  the  existing  canals,  so  as  to  permit 
the  conveyance  of  ocean  frieght  without  breaking  bulk. 

In  manufacturing  industry  almost  every  branch  of  production  is  to  be 
found,    the   progressive   enterprise   of  the   people  of  the   Dominion  being 
great,  and  a  large  proportion  of  the  goods  they  need  being 

made  at  home'  The  best  evidence  of  the  enterprise  of 
Canada  in  manufacture  is  shown  by  the  fact  that  she  exports 
many  thousand  dollars  worth  of  goods  annually  more  than  she  buys — Eng- 
land being  her  largest  customer  and  the  United  States  second  on  the  list. 
In  addition  to  her  manufactured  products,  Canada  is  actively  agricultural, 
and  possesses  vast  natural  wealth  in  the  products  of  her  rich  mines,  vast 
The  Yield  of  forests  and  prolific  fisheries.  The  most  recent  of  these  sources 
Precious  of  wealth  are  her  mines  of  the  precious  metals,  which  yielded 

over  $6,000,000  in  gold  and  $7,000,000  in  silver  in  1897, 
shortly  after  the  discovery  of  the  Klondike  deposits.  The  yield  of  those 
has  since  very  greatly  increased. 


THE  DOMINION  OF  CANADA  5!9 

Not  only  is  the  outside  world  largely  ignorant  of  the  importance  of 
Canada,  but  few  of  her  own  people  realize  the  greatness  of  the  country  they 
possess.  Its  area  of  more  than  three  and  one-half  millions  of  square  miles 
— one-sixteenth  of  the  entire  land  surface  of  the  earth — is  great  enough  to 
include  an  immense  variety  of  natural  conditions  and  products  This  area 
constitutes  forty  per  cent,  of  the  far  extended  British  empire,  while  its 
richness  of  soil  and  resources  in  forest  and  mineral  wealth  are  as  yet  almost 
untouched,  and  its  promise  of  future  yield  is  immense.  The  dimensions 
of  the  dominion  guarantee  a  great  variety  of  natural  attractions.  There 
are  vast  grass-covered  plains,  thousands  of  square  miles  of  untouched  forest 
lands,  multitudes  of  lakes  and  rivers,  great  and  small,  and  Extent  and  Re- 
mountains  of  the  wildest  and  grandest  character,  whose  sources  of  the 
natural  beauty  equals  that  of  the  far-famed  Alpine  peaks. 
In  fact,  the- Canadian  Pacific  Railway  is  becoming  a  route  of  pilgrimage  for 
the  lovers  of  the  beautiful  and  sublime,  its  mountain  scenery  being  un- 
rivaled upon  the  continent. 

The  population  of  Canada  varies  in  character  according  to  location. 
In  Ontario  the  people  are  generally  English.  In  Quebec,  and  many  other 
portions  of  what  was  formerly  called  Lower  Canada,  the  original  settlers 
were  French,  and  their  descendants  are  still  in  the  majority  and  retain  many 
of  the  habits  and  customs  of  their  mother  country — so  much  so,  in  fact,  that, 
though  England  has  ruled  the  land  for  about  one  hundred  and  fifty  years, 
the  French  language  is  still  almost  exclusively  spoken.  Even  in  the  cities 
of  Montreal  and  Quebec  the  prevalence  of  the  language  makes  the  vistor 
from  Toronto  feel  that  he  is  in  a  foreign  city. 

In  the  west,  until  a  few  years  ago,  the  prevailing  population  was  the 
original  Indian  and  the  half-breed.      But  this  element,  though  still  numerous, 
is  fast  being  swallowed  up  or  hidden  by  the  throng  of  immigrants,  who  are 
now   pouring    into    that    vast    and    resourceful  region.     These  immigrants, 
unlike  those  of  the  older  eastern  provinces,  are  made  up  of  all  The  Character  of 
the  nationalities  of  northern  Europe,  the  British  Isles,  however,       the  Canadian 
being  well  represented.     Out  of  this  mixture  a  new  people,       Population. 
combining  the  good  and  progressive  elements  of  various  nations,  is  springing 
up.      In    this    respect    the  Canadians   of  the   northwest   are  much  like  the 
inhabitants  of  the  northwestern  United  States. 

Population  at  present  is  densest  on  the  southern  borders  of  the  country, 
along  the  Great  Lakes  and  the  shores  of  the  St.  Lawrence.  The  interior  is 
very  sparsely  settled,  and  as  the  latitude  increases  the  cold  of  winter,  except 
where  the  country  is  warmed  by  the  winds  of  the  Pacific,  becomes  more 
intense,  until,  in.  the  northern  part  of  the  dominion,  it  is  practically  impossible 


520  THE  DOMINION  OF  CANADA 

for  the  Caucasian  race  to  live  in  comfort.  Much  of  this  unbroken  wilderness 
is  covered  with  gigantic  forests,  which  make  lumbering  the  chief  industry  of 
that  section,  as  agriculture  is  of  the  lower  latitudes.  In  fact,  lumbering 
and  agriculture  are  the  chief  industries  of  all  sections  except  the  sea-coasts, 
where  fishing  interests  are  of  great  importance,  and  certain  portions  of  the 
great  northwest,  like  the  Yukon  districts,  where  mining  is  predominant. 
On  the  whole,  Canada  has  before  it  a  great  future,  and  what  its  political 
destiny  will  be  no  man  can  foresee. 

In  several  conditions  the  people  of  Canada,  while  preserving  the  general 
features  of  English  society,  are  much  more  free  and  untrammeled.  The 
caste  system  of  Great  Britain  has  gained  little  footing  in  this  new  land, 
where  nearly  every  farmer  is  the  owner  of  the  soil  which  he  tills,  and  the 
people  have  a  feeling  of  independence  unknown  to  the  agricultural  popula- 
tion of  European  countries.  There  has  been  great  progress  also  in  many 
social  questions.  The  liquor  traffic,  for  instance,  is  subject  to  the  local  option 
of  restriction  ;  religious  liberty  prevails  ;  education  is  practically  free  and  un- 
sectarian;  the  franchise  is  enjoyed  by  all  citizens;  members  of  the  parliament 
are  paid  for  their  services  ;  and  though  the  executive  department  of  the 
government  is  under  the  control  of  a  governor-general  appointed  by  the 
queen,  the  laws  of  Canada  are  made  by  its  own  statesmen,  and  a  state  of 
practical  independence  prevails.  Recognizing  this,  and  respecting  the  liberty- 
loving  spirit  of  the  people,  Great  Britain  is  chary  in  interfering  with  any 
question  of  Canadian  policy,  or  in  any  sense  in  attempting  to  limit  the  free- 
dom of  her  great  Transatlantic  Colony. 


RT.  HON.  SIR  JOHN  A.  MACDONALD,  G.  C.  B. 
Prime  Minister  of  Canada,  1878-1891. 


RT.  HON.  J.  S.  D.  THOMPSON,  K.  C.  M.  G. 
Prime  Minister  of  Canada,  1892-1894. 


RT.  HON.  SIR  WILFRID  LAURIER, 
Prime  Minister  of  Canada,  1806. 

ILLUSTRIOUS   SONS   OF   CANADA 


SIR  CHARLES  TUPPER. 


DAVID  LIVINGSTONE 


HENRY  M.  STANLEY. 


DR.  FRITHIOF  NANSEN.  LIEUT.   R.   E.  PEARY. 

GREAT   EXPLORERS   IN   THE  TROPICS   AND   ARCTICS. 


CHAPTER   XXXVI. 

Livingstone,  Stanley,  Peary,  Nansen  and  Other  Great 
Discoverers  and  Explorers. 

AT  the  beginning  of  the  nineteenth  century,  long  as  man  had  previously 
existed  upon  the  earth,  much  more  than  half  its  surface  was  unknown 
to  the  most  civilized  nations.      Of  the  extensive   continent  of  Africa, 
for  instance,  only  the  coast  regions  had  been  explored,  while  the  vast  inte- 
rior could  fairly  be  described  as  the  "  Great  Unknown."    The  immense  con- 
tinent of  Asia  was  known  only  in  outline.     With  its  main  features  men  had 
some  acquaintance,  but  its  details  were  as  little  known  as  the 
mountains  of  the   moon.     With  America  men  were  little  bet-    l%n°r™ce  of 
ter  acquainted  than  with  Africa.   The  United  States  itself  had      Surface  at 
been  explored  only  as  far  west  as  the  Mississippi,  and  that  but      *e  Begin- 
imperfectly.     The  vast  space  between  that  great  stream  and      century 
the  Pacific  almost  wholly  awaited  discovery.     The  remainder 
of  the  continent  was  divided   into  national  domains,  which  were  thinly  in- 
habited and  very  imperfectly  known.    Of  the  continental  island  of  Australia 
only  a  few  spots  on  the  border  had  been  visited,  and  still  less  was  known  of 
the  broad  region  of  the  North  Polar  zone. 

At  the  end  of  the  century  a  very  different  tale  could  be  told.  The  hun- 
dred years  had  been  marked  by  an  extraordinary  activity  in  travel,  adven- 
ture, and  discovery;  daring  men  had  penetrated  the  most  obscure  recesses 

of  continents  and  islands,   climbed   the   most   difficult  moun- 

j  r  ^   -i  i-    j      i         Great  Activity 

tains,  ventured    among    the    most   savage  tribes,   studied  the      of  Explorers 
geographical  features  and  natural   productions   of  a  thousand      in  the  Nine- 
regions  before  unknown,  and  learned  more  about  the   condi- 
tions of  the  earth  than  had  been  learned  in  a  thousand  years 
before.     The  work  of  the    century  has    no    parallel    in    history  except    the 
fifteenth    and    sixteenth    centuries,  when  America  was  discovered  and    the 
East  Indies  were   explored,  and   the   horizon  of  human   knowledge  was  im- 
mensely extended. 

The  great  achievements  of  the  century  with  which  we  have  to  deal  were 
performed  by  a  large  number  of  adventurous  men,  far  too  numerous  even  to 
be  named  in  this  review. 

29  523 


524  GREAT  DISCOVERERS  AND  EXPLORERS 

In  fact  it  would  need  a  volume,  and  one  of  considerable  extent,  to  tell, 
even  in  epitome,  the  story  of  travel  and  exploration  within  the  nineteenth 
century.      Such  a  story,  given   in  any  fulness,  would  far  transcend  our  pur- 
pose, which  is  confined  to  the  description  of  the  great  events  of  the  century, 
those  of  epoch-making  significance,  and  which  played  leading  parts  in  the 
progress  of  the  period  with  which  we  are  concerned.      In  this  review,  there- 
fore, we  may  fairly  confine  ourselves  to  records  of  travel  in 
Fieidsof  two   regions  of   the   earth,  the   continent   of   Africa   and  the 

Nineteenth        Arctic  Zone,  of  both  of  which  little  was  known  at  the  opening  of 
Century  ^Q  century,  while  the  story  of  their  exploration   has   been  of 

startling  interest  and  importance.  The  interior  of  Asia  and 
America,  while  presenting  problems  to  be  solved,  were  not  unknown  in  the 
sense  in  which  we  speak  of  Africa,  over  which  rested  a  pall  of  darkness  as  black 
as  the  complexion  of  its  inhabitants.  Australia  alone  was  unknown  in  a 
similar  sense.  But  the  interior  of  that  great  island  is  practically  a  desert, 
and  its  exploration  possesses  nothing  of  the  interest  which  attaches  to  that  of 
Africa,  a  land  which  for  many  centuries  has  attracted  the  active  attention 
and  aroused  the  vivid  curiosity  of  mankind,  while  a  satisfactory  acquaintance 
with  it  has  been  left  for  the  latter  half  of  the  nineteenth  century. 

Of  the  great  travelers  to  whom  we  are  indebted  for  our  present  knowl- 
edge of  this  continent  two  stand  pre-eminent,  David  Livingstone  and  Henry 
M.  Stanley,  and  we  may  deal  with  their  careers  as  the  pivots  around  which 
the  whole  story  of  African  exploration  revolves. 

The  first  of  modern  travelers  to  penetrate  the  interior  of  western 
Africa  to  any  considerable  depth  was  the  justly  celebrated 
Mungo  Par"k,  whose  first  journey  to  the  Niger  was  made  in 
1795-96,  and  the  second  in  1805.  He  traced  that  important 
stream  through  a  large  part  of  its  upper  course — finally  losing  his  life  as  a 
result  of  his  intrepid  daring.  On  the  east  coast,  at  a  somewhat  earlier  date 
(1768-73)  the  equally  famous  James  Bruce  penetrated  Abyssinia  to  the  head- 
waters of  the  Blue  Nile,  which  he  looked  upon  as  the  source  of  the  great 
river  of  Egypt.  About  the  same  time  the  French  traveler  Vaillant  entered 
the  continent  at  Cape  Town  and  journeyed  north  for  more  than  three 
hundred  miles,  into  the  country  of  the  Bushmen. 

Such  was  the  state  of  African  exploration  at  the  beginning  of  the  century 
under  consideration.  The  travelers  named,  and  others  of  minor  importance, 
had  not  penetrated  far  from  the  coast,  and  the  vast  interior  of  the  continent 
remained  almost  utterly  unknown.  In  fact  the  century  was  half  gone  before 
anything  further  of  consequence  was  discovered,  the  first  journey  of  Dr. 
Livingstone  being  made  in  1849. 


GREAT  DISCO  VERERS  AND  EXPLORERS  525 

David  Livingstone,  an  enterprising  man,  of  Scotch  birth,  left  England 
in  1840  to  devote  his  life  to  missionary  work  in  Africa.  He  had  studied 
medicine  and  theology,  and  was  well  equipped  in  every  way  for  the  arduous 
and  difficult  work  he  had  undertaken.  Landing  at  Port  Natal,  he  became 
associated  with  the  Rev.  Robert  Moffat,  a  noted  African  missionary,  whose 
daughter  he  afterwards  married,  and  for  years  he  labored  Dr  j^jving- 
perseveringly  as  an  agent  of  the  London  Missionary  Society,  stone's  Mis- 
He  studied  the  languages,  habits,  and  religious  beliefs  of  a  sionary Labors 
number  of  tribes,  and  became  one  of  the  most  earnest  and  successful 
of  missionaries,  his  subsequent  journeys  being  undertaken  largely  for  the 
advance  of  his  religious  labors. 

His  experience  in  missionary  work  convinced  him  that  success  in  this 
field  of  duty  was  not  to  be  measured  by  the  tale  of  conversions — of  doubtful 
character — which  could  be  sent  home  every  year,  but  that  the  proper  work 
for  the  enterprising  white  man  was  that  of  pioneer  research.  He  could 
best  employ  himself  in  opening  up  and  exploring  new  fields  of  labor,  and 
might  safely  leave  to  native  agents  the  duty  of  working  these  out  in  detail. 

This  theory  he  first  put  into  effect  in  1849,  in  which  year  he  set  out 
on  a  journey  into  the  unknown  land  to  the  north,  the  goal  of  his  enter- 
prise being  Lake  Ngami,  on  which  no  white  man's  eyes  had  ever  fallen.  In 
company  with  two  English  sportsmen,  Mr.  Oswell  and  Mr. 
Murray,  he  traversed  the  great  and  bleak  Kalahari  Desert,— 
which  he  was  the  first  to  describe  in  detail, — and  on  the 
1st  of  August  the  travelers  were  gladdened  by  the  sight  of  the  previously 
unknown  liquid  plain,  the  most  southerly  of  the  great  African  lakes. 

Two  hundred  miles  beyond  this  body  of  water  lived  a  noted  chief 
named  Sebituane,  the  chief  of  the  Makololo  tribe,  whose  residence  Living- 
stone sought  to  reach  the  following  year,  bringing  with  him  on  this  journey 
his  wife  and  children.  But  fever  seized  the  children  and  he  was  obliged  to 
stop  at  the  shores  of  the  lake.  Nothing  daunted  by  this  failure,  he  set  out 
again  in  1851,  once  more  accompanied  by  his  family,  and  with  his  former 
companion,  Mr.  Oswell,  his  purpose  being  to  settle  among  the  Makololos  and 
seek  to  convert  to  Christianity  their  great  chief.  He  succeeded  in  reaching 
the  tribe,  but  the  death  of  Sebituane,  shortly  after  his  arrival,  disarranged 
his  plans,  and  he  was  obliged  to  return.  But  before  doing  so  he  and  Mr. 
Oswell  made  an  exploration  of  several  hundred  miles  to  the  northeast,  their 
journey  ending  at  the  Zambesi,  the  great  river  of  South  Africa,  which  he  here 
found  flowing  in  a  broad  and  noble  current  through  the  centre  of  the  continent. 

The  subsequent  travels  of  Livingstone  were  performed  more  for 
purposes  of  exploration  than  for  religious  labors,  though  to  the  cm*  he 


526  GREA7  DISCOVERERS  AND  EXPLORERS 

considered  himself  a  missionary  pioneer.     Sending-  his  family  to  England, 

he  left  Capetown  in  June,  1852.  and  reached   Linyanti,  the  capital  of  the 

Makololo,  in  May,  1853,  being  received  in  royal  style  by  the 

'journeTfrom    cmef  and  his  people,  by  whom  he  was  greatly  esteemed.      He 

the  Zambesi      next  ascended   the  Zambesi,  in  search  of  some  healthy  high 

to  the  West      land  for  a  missionary  station.     But  everywhere  he  found  the 

tsetse  fly,  an  insect  deadly  to  animals,   and,   annoyed  by  the 

ravages  of  this  insect  among  his  cattle,  he  determined  to  leave  that  locality 

and  enter  upon  the   greatest  journey  ever  yet  undertaken  in  Africa,  one 

through  the  unknown  interior  to  .the  west  coast. 

The  start  was  made  from  Linyanti  on  November  11,  1853,  the  party 
ascending  the  Leeba  to  Lake  Dilolo,  which  was  reached  in  February,  1854. 
Finally,  on  the  3ist  of  May,  they  came  to  the  coast  town  of  St.  Paul  de 
Loanda,  in  Portuguese  West  Africa.  Their  long  and  dangerous  journey 
had  been  attended  by  numberless  hardships,  and  Livingstone  reached  the 
coast  nearly  worn  out  by  fever,  dysentery  and  semi-starvation.  But  nothing 
could  deter  the  indefatigable  traveler.  He  set  out  again  after  a  few  months, 
reached  Lake  Dilolo  on  June  13,  1855,  and  Linyanti  in  September.  After 
a  brief  interval  of  rest  he  left  this  place  with  a  determination  to  follow  the 
broad-flowing  Zambesi  to  its  mouth  in  the  eastern  sea. 

A  fortnight  after  his  start  he  made  the  most  notable  of  his  discoveries, 
the  one  with  which  his  name  is  most  intimately  associated  in  popular 
The  Discovery  estimation,  that  of  the  great  Victoria  Falls  of  the  Zambesi, 
of  the  Great  a  cataract  which  has  no  rival  upon  the  earth  except  the  still 
Victoria  Falls  mjght}er  one  of  the  Niagara.  Here  an  immense  cleft  or 
fissure  in  the  earth  cuts  directly  across  the  channel  of  the  river,  which 
pours  in  an  enormous  flood  down  into  the  cavernous  abyss,  whence  "  the 
smoke  of  its  torrent  ascendeth  forever."  The  country  surrounding  seems 
to  be  a  great  basin-shaped  plateau,  surrounded  by  a  ring  of  mountains, 
the  depression  having  probably  at  onetime  been  filled  with  an  immense  lake 
whose  waters  were  drained  off  when  the  earth  split  asunder  across  its  bed. 

On  went  the  untiring  traveler,  and  on  May  20,  1856,  he  reached  the 
east  coast  at  the  Portuguese  town  of  Quillimane,  at  the  mouth  of  the  Zam- 
besi, in  a  frightfully  emaciated  condition      He  had,  in  two  and  a  half  years 
of  travel,  performed  one  of  the  most  remarkable  journeys  ever  made  up  to 
The  First  Cross-  t^lat  time.     First  proceeding  north  from  the  Cape  to  Loanda, 
ing  of  the         through  twenty-five  degrees   of  latitude,  he  had  for  the  first 
time  in  history,  crossed  the  continent  of  Africa  from   ocean  to 
ocean,  through  as  many  degrees  of  longitude,  while  his  discoveries  in  the 
geography  and  natural  history  of  the  region  traversed  had  been  immense. 


GREAT  DISCOVERERS  AND  EXPLORERS  527 

Livingstone  returned  to  England  in  the  latter  part  of  the  year  and  was 
received  with  the  highest  enthusiasm,  being  welcomed  as  the  first  to  break 
through  that  pall  of  darkness  which  had  so  long  enveloped  the  interior 
of  Africa.  The  Royal  Geographical  Society  had  already  conferred  upon 
him  its  highest  token  of  honor,  its  gold  medal,  and  now  honors  and 
compliments  were  showered  upon  him  until  the  modest  traveler  was  over- 
whelmed with  the  warmth  of  his  reception. 

The  desire  to  complete  his  work  was  strong  upon  him,  and  after  pub- 
lishing an  account  of  his  travels,  in  a  work  of  modest  simplicity,  he  returned 
to  Africa,  reaching  the  mouth  of  the  Zambesi  in  May,  1858.  In  1859  his 
new  career  of  discovery  began  in  an  exploration  of  the  Shire,  Livingstone 
a  northern  affluent  of  the  Zambesi,  up  which  he  journeyed  to  Discovers 
the  great  Lake  Nyassa,  another  capital  discovery.  For  several  Lake  Nvassa 
years  he  was  engaged  in  exploring  the  surrounding  region  and  in  furthering 
the  interests  of  missionary  enterprise  among  the  natives.  In  one  of  his 
journeys  his  wife,  who  was  his  companion  during  this  period  of  his  travels, 
died,  and  in  1864  he  returned  home,  worn  out  with  his  extraordinary  labors 
in  new  lands  and  desiring  to  spend  the  remainder  of  his  days  in  quiet  and 
repose. 

But  at  the  suggestion  of  Murchison,  the  famous  geologist  and  his 
staunch  friend,  he  was  induced  to  return  to  Africa,  one  of  his  main  purposes 
being  to  take  steps  looking  to  the  suppression  of  the  Arab  slave  trade,  whose 
horrors  had  long  excited  his  deepest  sympathies.  Landing  at  the  mouth  of 
the  Rovuma  River — a  stream  he  had  previously  explored — on  March  22, 
1866,  he  started  for  the  interior,  rounded  Lake  Nyassa  on  the  south,  and 
set  off  to  the  northeast  for  the  great  Lake  Tanganyika — which  had  mean- 
while been  discovered  by  Barton  and  Speke,  in  1857. 

After  his  departure  Livingstone  vanished  from   sight  and  knowledge, 
and  for  five  years  was  utterly  lost  in   the  deep   interior   of  the  continent. 
From  time  to  time  vague  intimations  of  his  movements  reached  the  world 
of  civilization,  but  the  question  of  his   fate  became  so  exciting  a  one  that 
in  1871  Henry  M.  Stanley  was  dispatched,  at  the  expense  of  the  proprietor 
of  the  New  York  Herald,  to  penetrate  the  continent  and  seek  to  discover 
the   long-lost  traveler.     Stanley  found  him  at   Ujiji,  on   the    Stanley 
northeast  shore  of  Tanganyika,  on  October  18,  1871,  the  great      in  Search  of 
explorer  being  then,  in  his  words,  "a  ruckle  of  bones."     Far      Llvin*stone 
and  wide  he   had   traveled   through   Central  Africa,  discovering  a  host  of 
lakes  and  streams,  and  finding  many  new  tribes  with  strange  habits.   Among 
his  notable  discoveries  was  that  of  the  Lualaba  River — The  Upper  Congo 
— which  he  believed  to  be  the  head-waters  of  the  Nile.     His  work  had  been 


528  GREAT  DISCOVERERS  AND  EXPLORERS 

enormous,  and  the  "  Dark  Continent"  had  yielded  to  him  a  host  of  its  long 

hidden  mysteries.      Not  willing  yet  to  give  up  his  work,  he  waited  at  Ujiji  for 

men  and   supplies   sent  him  by  Stanley  from   the   coast,  and  then   started 

The  Death  of        south  for  Lake  Bangweolo,  one  of  his  former  discoveries.    But 

the  Great          attacked  again  by  his  old  enemy,  dysentery,  the  iron  frame  of 

Explorer  tjie  great  traveller  at  length  yielded,   and    he    was   found,   on 

May  i,  1873,  by  his  men,  dead  in  his  tent,  kneeling  by  the  side  of  his  bed, 

Thus  perished  in  prayer  the  greatest  traveler  in  modern  times. 

For  more  than  thirty  years  Livingstone  had  dwelt  in  Africa,  most  of 
that  time  engaged  in  exploring  new  regions  and  visiting  new  peoples.  His 
travels  had  covered  a  third  of  the  continent,  extending  from  the  Cape  to 
near  the  equator,  and  from  the  Atlantic  to  the  Indian  Ocean,  his  work  being 
all  done  leisurely  and  carefully,  so  that  its  results  were  of  the  utmost  value 
to  geographical  science.  He  had  also  aroused  a  sentiment  against  the  Arab 
slave-trade  which  was  to  give  that  frightful  system  its  death-blow. 

The  work  of  Livingstone  stirred  up  an  enthusiasm  for  African  travel, 
and  many  adventurous  explorers  set  out  for  that  continent  during  his 
career.  After  the  discovery  of  Lake  Tanganyika  by  Burton  and  Speke,  in 
1857,  the  latter  started  to  the  northeast,  and  reached  the  head-waters  of  the 
great  Victoria  Nyanza,  the  largest  body  of  water  on  the  continent.  Subse- 
quently this  traveler,  accompanied  by  Mr.  Grant,  journeyed  to  the  White 
Nile,  north  of  this  lake,  while  Samuel  Baker,  another  adventurous  traveler, 
accompanied  by  his  heroic  wife,  reached  in  1864  a  great  lake  west  of  the 
Victoria,  which  he  named  the  Albert  Nyanza.  .  . 

Further  north  Dr.  Barth,  as  early  as  1850,  set  out  on  a  journey  across 
the  Sahara  to  the  Soudan,  and  at  a  later  date  various  travelers  explored 
this  northern  section  of  the  continent,  while  in  1874-75  Lieu- 
OtTra  d'ers"1  tenant  Cameron  repeated  Livingstone's  feat  of  crossing  the 
continent  from  sea  to  sea.  But  the  greatest  of  African  travel- 
ers after  Livingstone  was  Henry  M.  Stanley,  with  whose  work  we  are  next 
concerned. 

While  a  reporter  in  the  New  York  Herald,  this  enterprising  man  had 
been  sent  to  Crete  to  report  upon  the  revolution  in  that  island,  to  Abyssinia 
during  the  British  invasion,  and  to  Spain  during  the  revolution  in  that 
country.  While  in  Spain,  in  1869,  James  Gordon  Bennett  sent  him  the 
brief  order  to  "  find  Livingstone."  This  was  enough  for  Stanley,  who  pro- 
ceeded at  once  to  Zanzibar,  organized  an  expedition,  and  did  "  find  Living- 
stone," as  above  stated. 

Next,  filled  with  the  spirit  of  travel,  Stanley  set  out  to  "  find  Africa," 
now  as  joint  agent  for  the  Herald  and  the  London  Daily  Telegraph. 


GREAT  DISCOVERERS  AND  EXPLORERS  529 

Setting  out  from  Zanzibar  in   November,  1874,  he  proceeded,  with  a  large 
expedition,  to  the  Victoria  Nyanza,  which    he  circumnavigated  ;  and  then 
journeyed  to  Tanganyika,  whose  shape  and  dimension  he  similarly  ascer- 
tained.     From  these  he  proceeded  westward  to  the  Lualaba, 
the  stream  which  Livingstone  had  supposed  to  be  the  Nile.       neytothe 
How  Stanley  made  his  way  down  this  great  stream,  overcom-      Victoria  Ny- 
ing    enormous     difficulties     and     fighting    his    way    through 
hostile  tribes,  is  too  long  a  story  to  be  told.  here.      It  must  suffice  to  say 
that  he  soon  found  that  he  was  not  upon  the  Nile,  but  upon  a  westward 
flowing  stream,  which  he  eventually  identified  as  the  Congo — a  great  river 
whose  lower  course  only  had  been  previously  known.      For  ten  months  the 
daring  traveler  pursued  his  journey  down  this  stream,  assailed  by  treachery 
and  hostility,  and  finally  reached  the  ocean,  having  traversed  the  heart  of 
that  vast   "unexplored  territory  "  which  long  occupied  so  wide  a  space  on 
all  maps  of  Africa.      He  had  learned  that  the  interior  of  the  continent  is  a 
mighty   plateau,  watered   by  the   Congo   and   its   many   large    The  Descent  of 
affluents  and  traversed  in  all  directions  by  navigable  waters.       the  Great 
Politically  this  remarkable  journey  led  to  the  founding  of  the      Congo  River 
Congo  Free  State,  which  embraces  the  central  region  of  tropical  Africa,  and 
which  Stanley  was  sent  to  establish  in  1879. 

In  1887  he  set  out  on  another  great  journey.  The  conquest  of  the 
Egyptian  Soudan  by  the  Mahdi,  described  in  a  preceding  chapter,  had  not 
only  greatly  diminished  the  territory  of  Egypt,  but  had  cut  off  Emin  Pasha 
(Dr.  Edward  Schnitzler),  governor  of  the  Equatorial  Province  of  Egypt, 
leaving  him  stranded  on  the  Upper  Nile,  near  the  Albert  Nyanza.  Here 
Emin  maintained  himself  for  years,  holding  his  own  against  his  foes,  and 
actively  engaging  in  natural  history  study.  But,  cut  off  as  he  was  from 
civilization,  threatened  by  the  Mahdi,  and  his  fate  unknown  in  Europe,  a 
growing  anxiety  concerning  him  prevailed,  and  Stanley  was  sent  to  find  him, 
as  he  had  before  found  Livingstone. 

Organizing  a  strong  expedition  at  Zanzibar,  the  traveler  sailed  with  his 
officers,  soldiers  and  negro  porters  for  the  mouth  of  the  Congo,  which  river 
he  proposed  to  make  the  channel  of  his  exploration.  Setting  out  Stanley  Goes  to 
from  this  point  on  March  18,  1887,  by  June  I5th  the  expedition  the  Rescue  of 
had  reached  the  village  of  Yambuya,  1,300  miles  up  the  stream. 
Thus  far  he  had  traversed  waters  well  known  to  him.  From  this  point  he 
proposed  to  plunge  into  the  unknown,  following  the  course  of  the  Aruwimi, 
a  large  affluent  of  the  Congo  which  flowed  from  the  direction  of  the  great 
Nyanza  lake-basins. 


530  GREAT  DISCOVERERS  AND  EXPLORERS 

It  was  a  terrible  journey  which  the  expedition  now  made.  Before  it 
spread  a  forest  of  seemingly  interminable  extent,  peopled  mainly  by  the 
curious  dwarfs  who  form  the  forest-folk  of  Central  Africa.  The  difficulties 
before  the  traveler  were  enormous,  but  no  hardship  or  danger  could  daunt 
his  indomitable  courage,  and  he  kept  resolutely  on  until  he  met  the  lost 
Emin  on  the  shores  of  Albert  Nyanza,  as  he  had  formerly  met  Livingstone 
on  those  of  Lake  Tanganyika. 

Three  times  in  effect  Stanley  crossed  that  terrible  forest,  since  he  returned 
to  Yambuya  for  the  men  and  supplies  he  had  left  there  and  journeyed  back 
again.  Finally  he  made  an  overland  journey  to  Zanzibar,  on  the  east  coast, 
with  Emin  and  his  followers,  who  had  been  rescued  just  in  time  to  save  them 
A  Terrible  from  imminent  peril  of  overthrow  and  slaughter  by  the  fana- 

Forest  tical  hordes  of  the  Mahdi.     This  second  crossing  of  the  con- 

Journey  tinent  by  Stanley  ended  December  4,  1889,  having  continued 

little  short  of  three  years.  The  discoveries  made  were  great  and  valuable, 
and  on  his  return  to  Europe  the  explorer  met  with  a  reception  almost 
royal  in  its  splendor.  Among  the  large  number  of  travelers  who  during 
the  latter  half  of  the  century  have  contributed  to  make  the  interior  of 
Africa  as  familiar  to  us  as  that  of  portions  of  our  own  continent,  Livingstone 
and  Stanley  stand  pre-eminent,  the  most  heroic  figures  in  modern  travel  : 
Livingstone  as  the  missionary  explorer,  who  won  the  love  of  the  savage 
tribes  and  made  his  way  by  the  arts  of  peace  and  gentleness  ;  Stanley  as 
the  soldierly  explorer,  who  fought  his  way  through  cannibal  hordes,  his  arts 
being  those  of  force  and  daring.  They  and  their  successors  have  performed 
one  of  the  greatest  works  of  the  nineteenth  century,  that  of  lifting  the 
cloud  which  for  so  many  centuries  lay  thick  and  dense  over  the  whole 
extent  of  interior  Africa. 

Leaving  this  region  of  research,  we  must  now  seek  another  which  has 

been  the  seat  of  as  earnest  efforts  and  terrible  hardships  and  has  aroused 

The  Exploration  as  ar^ent  a  spirit  of  investigation,  the  Arctic  Zone.     At  no 

of  the  Arctic     point  in  the  story  of   the    nineteenth  century  do   we   find   a 

Zone  greater   display  of   courage   and   resolution,   a   more  patient 

endurance  of  suffering,  and  a  more  unyielding  determination  to  extend  the 

limits  of  human  knowledge,  than  in  this  region  of  ice  and  snow,  the  delving 

into   whose  secrets  has   actively   continued  during   the   latter   half    of    the 

century. 

A  number  of  voyages  were  made  to  the  Arctic  regions  in  former 
centuries,  and  Henry  Hudson  as  early  as  1607  sailed  as  far  north  as  the 
latitude  of  81  degrees  30  minutes  in  the  vicinity  of  Spitzbergen.  With  the 
opening  of  the  nineteenth  century  exploration  grew  more  active,  and 


GREAT  DISCOVERERS  AND  EXPLORERS  531 

voyage  after  voyage  was  made  ;  but  the  distance  north  reached  by  Hudson 
two  centuries  before  was  not  surpassed  until  1827,  when  Parry  reached  82 
degrees  40  minutes  north  latitude  in  the  same  region  of  the    Ear|y  Expedi- 
sea.     Beyond  these  efforts  to  penetrate  the  ice  barrier,  and  the      tions  to  the 
discovery   of    some  islands   in   the  Arctic    Ocean,   nothing  of 
special  interest  occurred   until  the  date   of  Sir  John  Franklin's  expedition, 
which  left  England  in  1845  anc^  disappeared  in  the  icy  seas,  every  soul  on 
board  perishing.      This  expedition  was  made  famous  by  the  many  search 
parties  which  were  sent  out  in  quest  of  the  lost  mariners. 

By  one  of  these  parties  the  northwest  passage  from  ocean  to  ocean, 
around  the  Arctic  coast  of  America,  was  traversed  in  1854.  The  fate  of 
Franklin  and  his  men  was  not  fully  solved  until  1880,  when  an  American 
expedition,  under  Lieutenant  Schwatka,  found  the  last  traces  left  by  the 
unfortunate  explorers. 

As  famous  and  as  disastrous  as  the  Franklin  expedition  was  the  "  Lady 
Franklin  Bay  Expedition,"  conducted  by  Lieutenant  Greely,  of  the  United 
States  army,  which  set  out  in  1881.  This  expedition  was  not  sent  for  pur- 
poses of  polar  research,  but  in  pursuance  of  a  plan  to  conduct  a  series  of 
circumpolar  meteorological  observations.  The  relief  party  of  1883,  dis- 
patched to  the  rescue  of  the  explorers,  was  unfortunately  put  under  the 
control  of  military  men,  who  not  only  failed  to  reach  their  destination,  but 
even  to  leave  a  supply  of  food  where  Greely  and  his  men  might  justly 
expect  to  find  one. 

As  a  result  of  this  failure,  the  explorers  were  obliged  to  abandon  their 
ships  and  make  their  way  southwards  over  almost  impassable  ice.     In  Octo- 
ber they  reached  Cape  Sabine,  one  of  the  bleakest  spots   in    The  Dreadful 
the  Arctic  zone.   If  food  had  been  left  there  for  them  all  would      Fate  of  the 
have   been  well.      But  they  looked  in  vain  for  the  expected       Qree'y  Party 
supplies,  and  when,  in  June,  1884,  Commodore  Schley  reached  them  with  a 
new  relief  ship,  starvation  had  almost  completed  its  work.     Of  the  whole 
party  only  six   men  survived,  and   a  day  or  two  more   of  delay  would  have 
carried  them  all  away.     Among  the  survivors  was  their  leader,  Lieutenant 
Greely. 

A  disaster  as  fatal  in  character  attended  the  Jeannette  expedition,  sent 
out  by  the  New  York  Herald,  in  1879,  under  Commander  DeLong,  to  push 
north  by  way  of  Bering  Strait.     The  vessel  was  crushed  by   The  Fata! 
the  ice  in  1882,  and  the  crew  made  their  way  over  the  frozen       "Jeannette" 
surface  past   the  New  Siberian  Islands   to  the  mouth   of  the      BxpedWon 
Lena  River,  on  the  north  coast  of  Siberia.     Here  starvation  attacked  them, 
and  DeLong  and  many  of  his   men  miserably  perished,  their  bodies  being 


533  GREAT  DISCOVERERS  AND  EXPLORERS 

found  by  Engineer  Melville,  one  of  their  companions,  who  had  pushed 
south  to  the  Siberian  settlements  and  secured  aid,  with  which  he  heroically 
returned  for  the  rescue  of  the  unfortunate  mariners. 

Another-  expedition  calling  for  attention  was  that  of  Adolf  Erik 
Nordenskjold,  a  Swedish  scientist.  The  purpose  of  this  enterprise  was  to 
discover,  if  possible,  a  practical  commercial  route  through  the  waters  north 
of  Europe  and  Asia,  the  long  sought-for  Northeast  Passage.  In  1878 
Expedition  Nordenskjold  set  out  in  the  Vega,  commanded  by  Captain 

of  Prof.  Nor-  Pallander,  of  the  Swedish  Navy.  The  party  succeeded  in 
denskjold  making  the  long  journey  round  the  northern  coasts  of  Eu- 
rope and  Asia,  wintering  in  Bering  Strait  and  reaching  Japan  in  1879. 
This  vessel  was  the  first  one  to  round  the  northernmost  point  of  Asia,  and 
Nordenskjold  was  rewarded  by  being  made  a  baron  and  a  commander  of  the 
order  of  the  Pole  Star  in  his  own  country,  and  by  marks  of  distinction  from 
several  others  of  the  courts  of  Europe. 

Since   1890  the  work  of  polar  exploration  has  taken  new  forms.      In 
1870  Nordenskjold  made  a  journey  into  Greenland,  and  a  second  one  in 
1883,  penetrating  that  island  more  than  100  miles  and  reach- 
Land  Journeys     ing  a  snow-clad  elevation  of  7,000  feet.      In   1886   Lieutenant 

in  Greenland 

Robet  E.  Peary,  of  the  United  States  Navy,  made  a  similar 
journey,  and  in  1888  Dr.  Frithjjof  Nansen,  a  Norwegian  explorer,  crossed 
the  southern  part  of  the  island  on  snowshoes  from  east  to  west. 

In  1891  Peary  proceeded  with  a  small  party  to  McCormick  Bay,  a  locality 
far  up  on  the  west  coast  of  Greenland,  whence  he  set  out  in  the  following 
spring  with  a  single  companion  for  a  sledge  journey  over  the  northern 
section  of  the  island.  After  a  remarkable  journey  of  650  miles  he  reached 
the  northeast  coast  of  Greenland,  at  81°,  37"  N.  latitude,  but  the  appear- 
ance of  an  area  of  broken  stones  impassable  by  sledges  cut  off  his  progress 
Peary  Crosses  to  t^ie  ^ar  nortn-  In  l895  Peary  repeated  this  journey,  but 
North  Green-  failed  to  make  farther  progress  northward. 

During  the  final  decade  of  the  century  polar  expeditions 
became  numerous.  Walter  Wellman,  a  young  American  journalist,  attempted 
in  1894  to  reach  the  pole  by  sledge  and  boat  over  the  Spitzbergen  route, 
but  his  supporting  vessel  was  crushed  in  the  ice,  and  he  was  forced  to  retreat 
when  near  the  8ist  parallel,  He  made  a  second  "dash  for  the  pole"  in 
1898-99,  but  was  disabled  by  an  accident,  and  again  obliged  to  return  with- 
out success.  In  1894  Frederick  G.  Jackson,  an  English  explorer,  visited 
Franz  Joseph  Land,  an  island  region  discovered  by  an  Austrian  expedition 
in  1872-74,  and  whose  northern  extension  was  not  known.  He  remained 
on  this  island  three  years,  carefully  exploring  it,  and  in  1896  stood  on  its 


GREAT  DISCOVERERS  AND  EXPLORERS 


533 


northern  extremity,  near  the  Sist  parallel,  and  in  view  of  an  open  ex- 
panse of  polar  waters.  Jackson's  most  notable  service  to  science  was  the 
rescue  of  the  daring  explorer  Nansen,  whose  expedition  needs  next  to  be 
described. 

Frithjof  Nansen,  whose  crossing  of  Greenland  has  been  mentioned, 
soon  after  projected  an  enterprise  of  a  new  character.  There  was  excellent 
reason  to  suppose  that  a  strong  ocean  current  crossed  the  polar  area,  flow- 
ing from  the  coast  of  the  Eastern  hemisphere  across  to  Greenland  and 
down  both  shores  of  that  island.  By  trusting  to  the  drift  in- 
fluence of  this  current  a  vessel  might  be  carried  past  the  pole 
and  the  long  baffling  mystery  solved.  Nansen  accordingly  had 
a  vessel  constructed  adapted  to  resist  the  most  powerful  crushing  force, 
and  so  formed  that  a  severe  ice  pressure  would  lift  it  to  the  surface  of 
the  floe.  In  this  vessel,  the  Fram,  he  set  out  in  June,  1893,  sailed  east  to 
the  vicinity  of  the  New  Siberia  Islands,  and  there  made  fast  his  ship  to  an 
ice  floe,  with  the  hope  that  the  current  would  slowly  carry  ice  and  ship 
across  the  polar  area. 

For  three  years  Nansen  and  his  crew  were  lost  to  all  knowledge  of  man, 
in  these  frozen  seas,  and  all  hopes  of  his  return  had  nearly  vanished 
when  he  triumphantly  reappeared,  having  achieved  a  marvelous  success, 
even  though  short  of  that  which  he  had  desired.  For  more  than  a  year  the 
Fram  had  drifted  slowly  northward,  and  on  Christmas  eve,  1894,  the  lati- 
tude of  83  degrees  24  minutes,  reached  by  the  Greely  expedition,  and  the 
highest  yet  attained,  was  passed.  In  March,  1895,  Nansen  left  the  ship, 
dissatisfied  with  its  slow  progress,  and  with  one  companion  started  on  a 
sledge  journey  to  the  north.  But  the  ice  grew  so  difficult  to  cross  and  his 
dog  teams  so  depleted  in  number,  that,  after  a  desperate  effort,  he  was 
obliged  to  give  up  the  enterprise  on  April  7th.  He  had  then  reached 
latitude  86  degrees  14  minutes,  being  200  miles  nearer  the  pole  than  former 
explorers  had  gone,  and  within  300  miles  of  that  "  farthest  north  "  point. 
The  vessel  which  he  had  left  continued  to  drift  north  until  it  Nansen's 
reached  85  degrees  57  minutes,  when  it  turned  southward.  "Farthest 
Here  the  sea  was  found  to  be  deep,  and  the  belief  that  the 
pole  might  be  surrounded  by  a  land  area  was  disproved.  It  lies  probably 
in  a  sea  region  of  over  10,000  feet  in  depth. 

Nansen  and  Johansen,  his  companion,  finally  reached  the  coast  of 
Franz  Joseph  Land,  where  they  drearily  spent  the  winter  of  1895-96,  living 
on  the  flesh  of  bears  and  walrusses,  which  they  shot.  In  the  spring  they  set 
out  to  cross  the  ice  to  Spitzbergen,  and  after  two  unsucessful  attempts  had 
the  good  fortune  to  meet  Dr.  Jackson  on  the  shores  of  Franz  Joseph  Land. 


534 


GREAT  DISCOVERERS  AND  EXPLORERS 


The   incident   was   one  of   the  most  notable  in  the  history  of  research    it 

seeming  next   to   impossible   that    almost   the  -only  human  beings   in    »he 

vast  area  of  the   frozen   north   should   have   the  remarkable 

The  Rescue  of      fortune    to   come    together.     The  voyagers    completed    their 

journey  home  in  Jackson's  supply  ship,  the  Windward,  their 

arrival  in  the  realms  of  civilization  being  one  of  the  most  striking  events  of 

the  century.    In  1897  Jackson  returned,  having  explored  and  mapped  Franz 

Joseph  Land. 

The  final  years  of  the  century  were  very  active  in  polar  research.  A 
new  explorer  of  Swedish  birth,  S.  A.  Andree,  devised  a  plan  of  reaching 
the  pole  as  original  as  that  of  Nansen,  and  thought  by  many  to  be  more 
hopeful.  This  was  the  taking  advantage  of  the  currents  of  air,  instead  of 
those  of  water.  Mr.  Andree  was  an  aeronaut  of  experience,  and  found  it 
possible,  by  aid  of  a  rope  drag  and  a  rubber  sail,  to  direct  the  motion  of  a 
balloon  somewhat  aside  from  the  course  of  the  wind.  A  balloon  seemingly 
suitable  for  his  enterprise  was  constructed,  and  in  the  summer  of  1897  he 
Andre'e's  Fatal  set  out  ^or  t^le  nortn  with  two  companions,  and  with  ardent 
Balloon  Yen-  hopes  of  returning  successful  in  a  few  months.  Unhappily, 
accident  or  miscalculation  interfered  with  the  plans  of  the 
adventurous  aeronaut,  and  he  and  his  companions  have  failed  to  return. 
They  have  in  all  probability  fallen  victims  to  the  terrible  conditions  of  the 
northern  zone. 

In  1898  Lieutenant  Peary  set  out  again  for  the  scene  of  his  former 
triumph,  now  equipped  for  a  continued  effort  to  solve  the  problem  of  the 
pole.  He  proposed  to  establish  depots  of  provisions  at  successive  points 
in  the  north,  and  to  continue  the  enterprise  for  years  if  necessary,  finally 
dashing  polar-ward  from  his  farthest  north  station.  In  the  same  year  the 
Norwegian  Captain  Sverdrup  proceeded  to  the  same  locality  in  the  famous 
Fram,  with  purposes  analogous  to  those  of  Peary.  In  1899  the  adventurous 
Italian  Prince  Luigi,  set  out  for  Franz  Joseph  Land,  well  equipped  for  a 
journey  north,  and  proposing  to  devote  several  years  to  the  enterprise. 

Thus  there  is  room  for  hope  that  the  pole  may  be  reached  by  the  end 
of  the  nineteenth  century,  or  before  the  twentieth  century  is  many  years 
advanced.  Meanwhile  the  enterprise  of  South  Polar  exploration,  long 
neglected,  has  been  actively  revived.  Several  expeditions  have  recently 
visited  that  region,  and  active  steps  are  being  taken  for  its  exploration  on 
a  larger  scale. 


CHAPTER   XXXVII. 

Robert  Fulton,  George  Stephenson,  and  the 
Triumphs  of  Invention. 

IN  no  direction  has  the  nineteenth  century  been  more  prolific  than  in  that 
of  invention,  and  its  fame  in  the  future  is  likely  to  be  largely  based  on 
its    immense    achievements    in  this  field    of    human   activity.       It    has 
been  great  in  other  directions, — in   science,  in  exploration,  in   political  and 
moral  development,  but  it  is  perhaps  in  invention  and  the  industrial  adapta- 
tion of  scientific  discovery  that  it  stands  highest  and  has  done  most  for  the 
advancement  of  mankind.     And  it  is  a  fact  of  great  interest  that  much  the 

most  striking  and  important  work  in  this  direction  has  been 

,         »        ,     <f  .  Anglo-Saxon 

done   by  the  Anglo-Saxon    race,    in    many  respects   the   most       Activity  in 

enterprising  and  progressive  race  upon  the  face  of  the  earth.  invention 
For  the  beginning  of  this  work,  during  the  eighteenth  century,  credit  must 
be  given  to  Great  Britain,  and  especially  for  the  notable  invention  of  the 
steam  engine,  which  forms  the  foundation  stone  of  the  whole  immense 
edifice.  But  to  the  development  of  the  work,  during  the  nineteenth  cen- 
tury, we  must  seek  the  United  States,  whose  inventive  activity  and  the 
value  of  its  results  have  surpassed  those  of  any  other  region  of  the  earth. 

We  cannot  confine  ourselves  to  the  nineteenth  century  in  considering 
this  subject,  but  must  go  back  to  the  eighteenth,  and  glance  at  the  epoch- 
making  discovery  of  James  Watt,  the  famous  Scottish  engi-  james  Watt  and 
neer,  to  whom  we  owe  the  great  moving  force  of  nineteenth  the  Steam 
century  industry  and  progress,  and  whose  life  extended  until 
1819,  well  within  the  century.  There  exists  an  interesting  legend  that  his 
attention  was  first  attracted  to  the  power  of  steam  when  a  boy,  when  sitting 
by  the  fireside  and  observing  the  lid  of  his  mother's  tea-kettle  lifted  by  the 
escaping  steam.  It  is  not,  however,  to  the  discovery,  but  to  the  useful 
application  of  steam  power  that  his  fame  is  due.  The  use  of  steam  as  a 
motive  power  had  been  attempted  long  before,  and  steam  pumps  used 
almost  a  century  before  Watt's  great  invention.  What  he  did  was  to  pro- 
duce the  first  effective  steam  engine,  the  parent  machine  upon  which  the 
multitudinous  improvements  during  the  succeeding  century  were  based. 

535 


536 


THE  TRIUMPHS  OF  INVENTION 


While  the  eighteenth  century  is  notable  for  the  discovery  of  the  steair< 
engine  and  for  the  first  stages  in  the  production  of  labor-saving  machinery, 
the  great  triumphs  in  the  latter  field  of  invention  were  made  in  the  suc- 
ceeding century,  during  which  era  the  powers  of  human  production  were 
Nineteenth  developed  to  an  extent  not  only  unprecedented,  but  almost 
Century  incredible,  the  powers  of  man,  aided  by  steam  and  electricity, 

invention  being  increased  a  hundred-fold  during  a  century  of  time.  It 
would  need  a  volume  devoted  to  this  subject  alone  to  tell,  even  in  epitome, 
all  that  has  been  done  in  this  direction,  and  here  we  must  confine  ourselves 
to  a  rapid  review  of  the  leading  results  of  inventive  genius. 

Both  in  Great  Britain  and  in  America  notable  triumphs  in  the  invention 
of  labor-saving  machines  were  accomplished  in  the  closing  period  of  the 
eighteenth  century.  These  include  the  famous  British  inventions  of  the 
spinning  jenny  of  James  Hargreaves,  the  spinning  frame  of  Sir  Richard 
Arkwright,  and  the  power  loom  of  Dr.  Cartwright,  the  first  notable  aids  in 
cotton  manufacture.  These  were  rendered  available  by  the  cotton-gin  of 
Eli  Whitney,  the  American  inventor,  by  whose  genius  the  production  of 
cotton  fibre  was  enormously  cheapened.  Other  celebrated  American 
inventors  of  this  period  were  John  Fitch,  to  whose  efforts  the  first  practical 
steamboat  was  due,  and  Oliver  Evans,  who  revolutionized  milling  machinery, 

his  devices  in  flour  and  grist  mills  being-  in  use  for  half  a  cen- 
Labor-saving  .  °  to  . 

Machinery  of  tury  after  his  death.  He  was  also  the  first  to  devise  a  steam 
the  Eighteenth  carriage,  and  in  1804  built  a  steam  dredger,  which  propelled 
itself  through  the  streets  of  Philadelphia  and  afterwards  was 
moved  as  a  stern-wheel  steamboat  on  the  Schuylkill  River.  Another  famous 
invention  of  this  period  was  the  nail  machine  of  Jacob  Perkins,  patented  in 
1795,  though  not  fully  developed  until  1810.  At  that  time  nails  were  all 
hand-wrought,  and  cost  twenty-five  cents  a  pound.  By  this  machine  the 
ancient  hand  process  was  speedily  brought  to  an  end  and  the  price  of  nails 
has  since  been  reduced  to  little  more  than  that  of  the  iron  of  which  they  are 
made.  Another  famous  American  inventor  of  early  date  was  Thomas 
Blanchard,  the  most  notable  of  whose  many  inventions  was  the  Blanchard 
lathe,  developed  in  1819,  for  the  turning  of  irregular  forms,  a  contrivance 
of  the  utmost  value  in  doing  away  with  slow  and  costly  methods  of  labor. 

Of    early  inventions    of    the    nineteenth    century,  however,   the    most 
The  Steamboat    notable  were  the  steamboat  and  the  locomotive,  the  later  de- 
andLocomo-     velopment  of  which  has  been  of  extraordinary  value  to  man- 
kind.     Previous  to  the  century  under  review,  for  a  period  of 
several  thousand  years,  the  horse  had  been  depended  on  for  rapid  land  travel, 
the   sail  for  rapid  motion  on   the   water.     The    inventions  of   Fulton  and 


THE  TRIUMPHS  OF  INVENTION  537 

Stephenson  brought  these  ancient  systems  to  an  end,  and  within  a  single 
century  produced  a  magical  change  in  the  ability  of  man  to  make  his  way 
over  the  surface  of  land  and  sea. 

The  application  of  steam  to  the  movement  of  boats  had  been  tried  by 
several  inventors  in  Great  Britain  and  America  in  the  eighteenth  century, 
the  most  successful  being  John  Fitch,  whose  steamboat  was  used  for  months 
on  the  Delware  about  1790.  But  the  earliest  inventor  to  produce  a  com- 
mercially successful  steamboat  was  Robert  Fulton,  another  American, 
whose  boat,  the  Clermont,  was  given  its  trial  trip  on  the  Hudson  in  1807. 

This  boat,   in  which  was  employed  the  principle  of    the  side  paddle- 
wheel,  and  which   used  a  more    powerful   engine    than  John    Fulton's  Boat 
Fitch  could  command,  was  completed   in  August,    1807,  and      the  •«  Cler- 
excited  a  great  degree  of    public  interest,  far  more  than  had       mont" 
been  given   to  the  pioneer  steamboat.      Monday,  September    n,  1807,  the 
time  set  for  sailing,  came,  and  expectation  was  at  its  highest  pitch.      The 
friends  of  the  inventor  were  in  a  state  of  feverish  anxiety  lest  the  enterprise 
should  come  to  grief,  and  the  scoffers  on  the  wharf  were  ready  to  give  vent 
to  shouts  of    derision.      Precisely  at  the  hour  of    one  the    moorings  were 
thrown  off,  and  the  Clermont  moved  slowly  out  into  the  stream.      Volumes 
of  smoke    rushed    forth    from    her    chimney,   and    her  wheels,  which  were 
uncovered,  scattered  the  spray  far  behind  her.      The  spectacle  was  certainly 
novel  to  the  people  of  those  days,  and   some  of  the   crowd   on   the  wharf 
broke  into  shouts  of  ridicule.     Soon,  however-,  the  jeers  grew   The  F|rst 
silent,  for  it  was  seen  that  the  steamer  was  increasing  her  speed.       steamboat 

Soon  she    was    fairly    under  way,   and   making  a  steady  pro-      Trip  Up  the 

i  f   r  nnu  Hudson 

gress  up  the  stream  at  the  rate  of  five  miles  per  hour.      1  he 

incredulity  of  the  spectators  had  been  succeeded  by  astonishment,  and 
now  this  feeling  gave  way  to  undisguised  delight,  and  cheer  after  cheer  went 
up  from  the  vast  throng.  In  a  little  while,  however,  the  boat  was  observed 
to  stop,  and  the  enthusiasm  at  once  subsided.  The  scoffers  were  again  in 
their  glory,  and  unhesitatingly  pronounced  the  enterprise  a  failure.  But  to 
their  chagrin,  the  steamer,  after  a  short  delay,  once  more  proceeded  on  her  way, 
and  this  time  even  more  rapidly  than  before.  Fulton  had  discovered  that 
the  paddles  were  too  long,  and  took  too  deep  a  hold  on  the  water,  and  had 
stopped  the  boat  for  the  purpose  of  shortening  them. 

This  defect  remedied,  the  Clermont  continued  her  voyage  during 
the  rest  of  the  day  and  all  night,  without  stopping,  and  at  one  o'clock  the 
next  day  ran  alongside  the  landing  at  Clermont,  the  seat  of  Chancellor 
Livingston.  She  lay  there  until  nine  the  next  morning,  when  she  continued 


538  THE  TRIUMPHS  OF  INVENTION 

her  voyage  toward  Albany,  reaching  that  city  at  five  in  the  afternoon.  On 
her  return  trip,  she  reached  New  York  in  thirty  hours  running  time — exactly 
five  miles  per  hour. 

The  river  was  at  this  time  navigated  entirely  with  sailing  vessels.  The 
surprise  and  dismay  excited  among  the  crews  of  these  vessels  by  the 

appearance    of    the    steamer   was    extreme.       These    simple 
The  Effect  of 
the  steam=       people    beheld    what  they   supposed   to  be  a  huge    monster, 

boat  on  River  vomiting  fire  and  smoke  from  its  throat,  lashing  the  water 
with  its  fins,  and  shaking  the  river  with  its  roar,  approaching 
rapidly  in  the  face  of  both  wind  and  tide.  Some  threw  themselves  flat  on 
the  decks  of  their  vessels,  where  they  remained  in  an  agony  of  terror  until 
the  monster  had  passed,  while  others  took  to  their  boats  and  made  for  the 
shore  in  dismay,  leaving  their  vessels  to  drift  helplessly  down  the  stream. 

The  introduction  of  the  steamboat  gave  a  powerful  impetus  to  the 
internal  commerce  of  the  Union.  It  opened  to  navigation  many  important 
rivers  whose  swift  currents  had  closed  them  to  sailing  craft,  and  made  rapid 
and  easy  communication  between  the  most  distant  parts  of  the  country 
practicable.  The  public  soon  began  to  appreciate  this,  and  orders  came  in 
rapidly  for  steamboats  for  various  parts  of  the  country.  Fulton  executed 
these  as  fast  as  possible,  several  among  the  number  being  for  boats  on  the 
Ohio  and  Mississippi  rivers. 

The  subsequent  history  of  this  important  invention  need  but  be  glanced 
at  here.  The  first  steamship  to  cross  the  ocean  was  the  Savannah,  which 
set  out  from  the  city  of  that  name  in  1819,  and  reached  Liverpool  by  the 
combined  aid  of  wind  and  steam  in  twenty-eight  days.  The  first  to  cross 
entirely  by  steam  power  was  the  Royal  William,  a  Canadian-built  vessel,  in 
1833.  A  year  or  two  later  the  Great  Britain,  the  first  iron  ocean  steamer — 
322  feet  long  by  31  feet  beam — crossed  the  ocean  in  fifteen  days.  Since  then 
the  development  of  steam  navigation,  alike  on  inland  and  ocean  waters,  has 
been  enormous,  and  an  extraordinary  increase  has  been  made  in  the  size 
and  speed  of  steam  vessels.  Forty  years  ago  the  fastest  ocean  steamer 
took  more  than  nine  days  to  cross  from  New  York  to  Queenstown.  This 
Development  journey  can  be  made  now  in  a  little  over  five  days.  As 
of  Ocean  regards  size,  the  great  Oceanic,  whose  first  voyage  was  made 

in  1899,  surpasses  any  other  boat  ever  built.  This  sea- 
monster  is  704  feet  long,  and  has  a  displacement  of  28,000  tons,  while  it 
is  capable  of  steaming  around  the  earth  at  twelve  knots  an  hour  with- 
out recoaling.  Its  engine  power  is  enormous,  and  its  carrying  capacity 
unprecedented.  This  leviathan  considerably  outranks  in  dimensions  the  Great 


5-  I  w 

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S    n 


THE  TRIUMPHS  OF  INVENTION  541 

Eastern,  the  former  ocean  marvel,  and  fitly  typifies  the  progress  of  the  century. 
As  will  be  remembered  the  Great  Eastern  proved  a  failure,  while  the  Oceanic 
is  a  pronounced  success. 

Important  as  has  been  the  invention  of  the  steamboat,  it  is  much 
surpassed  by  that  of  the  locomotive  and  the  railroad,  which  have  increased 
the  ease,  cheapness,  and  rapidity  of  land  travel  and  freight  transportation 
far  more  than  steam  navigation  has  increased  traffic  by  water.  While  the 
sailing  vessel  falls  short  of  the  steamship  as  an  aid  to  commerce,  the 
difference  between  the  two  is  very  much  less  than  that  between  the  horse 
and  the  locomotive,  the  iron  rail  and  the  ordinary  road,  and  the  railroad  has 
achieved  a  revolution  in  transportation  equal  to  that  made  by  the  steam 
engine  in  manufacture. 

The  motor  engine  is,  aside  from  the  work  of  Oliver  Evans,  already 
mentioned,  solely  a  result  of  nineteenth  century  enterprise.  The  railroad 
came  earlier,  first  in  the  form  of  tramways  of  wood  ;  the  earliest  iron  rails 
being  laid  in  England  about  1767.  But  it  was  not  until  after  1800  that  an 
attempt  was  made  to  replace  the  horse  by  the  steam  carriage  on  these  roads. 
Of  those  who  sought  to  solve  this  problem,  George  Stephenson,  a  poor 
English  workingman,  stands  decidedly  first.  While  serving  as  fireman  in  a 
colliery,  and  later  as  engineer,  he  occupied  himself  earnestly  in  the  study  of 
machinery,  and  as  early  as  1814  constructed  for  the  colliery  a  traction  engine 
with  two  cylinders.  This  was  seated  on  a  boiler  mounted  on  wheels,  which 
were  turned  by  means  of  chains  connected  with  their  axles.  It  drew  eight 
loaded  cars  at  a  speed  of  four  miles  an  hour.  This  was  a  clumsy  affair, 
weak  in  power,  and  inefficient  in  service,  but  it  was  much  superior  to  any 
other  engine  then  in  use,  and  was  improved  on  greatly  by  his  second  engine, 
built  the  following  year,  and  in  which  he  used  the  steam  blast-pipe.  These 
early  engines  were  not  much  esteemed,  and  the  horse  con-  Qeorge  stephen- 
tinued  to  be  employed  in  preference,  the  first  passenger  rail-  son  and  the 
road,  the  Stockton  and  Darlington,  opened  in  1825,  being  run  Locomotive 
by  horse-power.  Meanwhile  Stephenson  continued  to  work  on  the  locomo- 
tive, improving  it  year  after  year,  until  his  early  ventures  were  far  surpassed 
in  efficiency  by  his  later.  A  French  engineer,  M.  Seguin,  in  1826,  successfully 
introduced  locomotives  in  which  improved  appliances  for  increasing  the 
draught  were  employed.  At  that  time,  indeed,  inventors  seem  to  have  been 
actively  engaged  on  this  problem,  and  when  the.  Liverpool  and  Manchester 
Railway,  begun  in  1825,  offered  premiums  for  the  best  engines  to  be  run  at 
high  speed,  a  number  of  applicants  appeared.  The  premium  was  easily  won, 
in  1830,  by  Stephenson's  "Rocket,"  the  most  effective  locomotive  yet 
produced.  This  antediluvian  affair,  as  it  would  appear  to-day,  weighed 
30 


542  THE  TRIUMPHS  OF  INVENTION 

only  4^  tons,  but  was  able  to  draw  a  load  of   17  tons  at  an  average  speed 

of    fourteen    miles  an  hour,    sometimes  reaching  seventeen   miles.      When 

The  Perform-       run  a^one  ^  attained  thirty  miles  an  hour,  to  the  amazement 

ance  of  the       and   admiration  of  the  public.      It  is  to  George  Stephenson 

"Rocket"        we   owe   t}ie  locomotive  as  an  effective  piece   of  mechanism. 

"  He  found  it  inefficient,"  says  Smiles,  "  and  he  made  it  powerful,  efficient 

and  useful." 

While  these  events  were  taking  place  in  England  and  France,  the  new 
idea  had  taken  root  in  America,  and  the  inventors  and  engineers  of  the 
United  States  set  themselves  to  the  development  of  the  problem.  Short 
lines  of  railway,  for  horse  traction,  were  laid  at  early  dates,  the  first  loco- 
motive, the  "  Stourbridge  Lion,"  being  imported  from  England  and  placed 
on  a  short  line  at  Honesdale,  Pa.,  in  1829.  The  Baltimore  and  Ohio,  the 
first  passenger  railroad  in  the  United  States,  was  begun  in  1830,  and  on  it 
was  tried  the  earliest  American-built  locomotive,  the  production  of  Peter 
Cooper,  the  celebrated  philanthropist  of  later  years.  This  was  a  toy  affair, 
First  American  with  a  three  and  a  half  inch  cylinder,  an  upright  tubular  boiler 
Railroads  and  made  of  old  gun  barrels,  and  a  fan  blower  to  increase  the 
Locomotives  draught.  jts  weight  was  two  and  a  half  tons.  Yet  it  did  not 
lack  speed,  making  the  run  from  Baltimore  to  Ellicott's  Mills,  twenty-seven 
miles,  in  an  hour.  But  the  first  serviceable  American  locomotive  was  the 
"  Best  Friend,"  built  at  West  Point,  N.  Y.,  and  run  on  the  Charleston  and 
Hamburg  Road,  in  South  Carolina,  in  1830,  shortly  after  Stephenson's 
"Rocket"  had  been  tried.  The  "Best  Friend"  could  make  more  than 
thirty  miles  an  hour,  and  could  draw  a  train  of  four  or  five  coaches,  with 
forty  to  fifty  passengers,  at  twenty  miles  an  hour.  It  was  inferior  to  the 
"  Rocket,"  however,  in  design,  and  its  career  came  to  a  sudden  end  through 
the  zeal  of  a  negro  fireman,  who  sat  on  the  safety  valve  to  stop  the  escape 
of  steam.  The  fireman  shared  the  fate  of  the  locomotive. 

Such  was  the  railroad  as  it  began, — a  microscopic  event.  To  day  it  is 
of  telescopic  magnitude.  At  the  end  of  1831  there  were  less  than  a  hundred 
miles  of  railroad  in  the  United  States,  and  probably  still  fewer 
elsewhere-  At  the  end  of  the  century  this  country  alone  had 
over  180,000  miles  of  railroad,  while  there  were  single  railroad 
systems  with  more  than  8000  miles  of  track.  In  the  whole  world  there  were 
about  450,000  miles  of  road, — only  two  and  a  half  times  the  mileage  of  the 
United  States. 

As  for  the  development  of  the  locomotive,  the  railroad  carriage,  the 
track,  etc.,  it  has  been  enormous,  and  sixty  miles  an  hour  for  passenger 
trains  is  now  a  common  speed,  while  the  numbers  of  people  and  tons  of 


THE  TRIUMPHS  OF  INVENTION 


543 


freight  transported  annually  by  the  railroads  of  the  world  are  incredibly 
great.  We  cannot  here  undertake  to  describe  the  notable  feats  of  engineer- 
ing which  have  carried  railroads  over  rivers  and  chasms,  over  mountains 
impassable  otherwise  except  by  sure-footed  mules,  across  deserts  too  hot  and 
dry  even  for  mule  trains.  "  No  heights  seem  too  great  to-day,  no  valleys  too 
deep,  no  canons  too  forbidding,  no  streams  too  wide  ;  if  commerce  demands 
it  the  engineer  will  respond  and  the  railways  will  be  built."  The  railroad 
bridges  of  the  country  would  make  a  continuous  structure  from  New  York 
to  San  Francisco,  and  include  many  of  the  boldest  and  most  original,  as 
well  as  the  longest  and  highest,  bridges  in  the  world.  The  pioneer  railroad 
suspension  bridge  at  Niagara  Falls  was  as  remarkable  in  its 
day  for  boldness  and  originality  as  for  dimensions  and  success.  Ql*eat  Railroad 
A  single  span  of  821  feet,  supported  by  four  cables,  carried 
the  track  245  feet  above  the  river  that  rushed  beneath.  The  cables  were 
supported  by  masonry  towers,  whose  slow  disintegration  gave  occasion  for 
an  engineering  feat  even  more  notable  than  the  original  construction  of  the 
bridge.  The  first  railroad  bridge  across  the  Ohio  was  at  Steubenville,  com- 
pleted in  1866;  the  first  iron  bridge  over  the  Upper  Mississippi  was  the 
Burlington  bridge  of  1869.  The  first  great  bridge  across  the  Mississippi 
was  Eads'  magnificent  structure  at  St.  Louis,  whose  beautiful  steel  arches 
of  over  500  feet  span  each  give  no  hint  of  the  difficult  problems  that  had  to 
be  solved  before  a  permanent  bridge  was  possible  at  that  point.  It  was 
completed  in  1874.  Since  then  the  great  river  has  been  frequently  bridged 
for  railroads,  while  its  great  branch,  the  Missouri,  has  been  crossed  by  bridges 
in  a  dozen  places. 

The  steam  railroad  has  been  supplemented  by  the  electric  street  rail- 
way, which  at  the  close  of  the  century  was  being  extended  at  a  highly 
promising  rate.  Passenger  travel  in  cities  by  aid  of  the  horse  railway  was 
inaugurated  about  the  middle  of  the  century,  the  horse  beginning  to  be 
replaced  by  the  electric  motor  in  1881,  when  the  first  railway  of  this  char- 
acter was  laid  in  Berlin.  A  second  was  laid  in  Ireland  in  1883.  But  the 
electric  steel  railway  has  made  its  greatest  progress  in  the  United  States, 
where  the  first  line  went  into  operation  at  Richmond,  Va.,  in  1888.  This 
adopted  the  overhead  trolly  system,  since  so  widely  employed,  and  the 
length  of  line  had  increased  to  over  3,000  miles  in  1892  and 
15,000  miles  in  1897.  Since  that  date  the  progress  of  electric 
railways  has  been  enormous,  they  being  extended  from  the 
cities  far  into  the  country,  where  they  come  into  active  competion  with 
the  steam  roads.  Electric  locomotives  are  also  in  use,  and  the  twentieth 


544  THE  TRIUMPHS  OF  INVENTION 

century  is  likely  to  see  a  development  of  electric  traction  which  will  have 
the  whole  earth  for  its  field,  and  may  perhaps  displace  the  steam  road,  the 
great  triumph  in  transportation  of  the  nineteenth  century. 

Other  recent  devices  for  swift  travel  are  the  bicycle,  which  came  extra- 
ordinarily into  use  during  the  last  quarter  of  the  century,  and  the  automobile 
carnage,  whose  era  only  fairly  began  as  the  century  reached  its  end.      It  is 
The  Bicycle          'in  t^ie  direction  of    the  latter  and  of   aerial   travel   that  the 
and  the  twentieth    century    will    perhaps    achieve    its     most     notable 

Automobile  triumphs  in  this  field.  As  for  the  horse,  man's  most  useful 
servant  at  the  beginning  of  the  century,  it  was  rapidly  being  displaced  at 
the  end,  and  may  during  the  century  to  come  cease  to  be  employed  in  the 
service  of  man. 

The  story  of  railroading  leads  naturally  to  that  of  progress  in  iron  and 
steel  work  generally,  which  has  been  extraordinary  during  the  century.  Of 
inventions  in  this  direction  perhaps  the  most  notable  is  the  Bessemer  steel- 
making  process,  which  converts  iron  into  steel  by  the  direct  addition  of  the 
necessary  quantity  of  carbon,  and  has  had  the  important  result  of  making 
steel  cheaper  to-day  than  iron  was  not  very  many  years  ago.  In  iron- 
working  machinery  the  progress  has  been  very  great,  and  in  no  other  field 
has  the  genius  of  the  American  inventor  been  more  conspicuously  dis- 
Marvels  in  iron  played.  The  same  may  be  said  of  wood-working  machinery, 
and  Wood-  in  which  the  most  clever  mechanism  is  employed.  The  result 
is  that  many  articles  in  metal  and  wood,  of  the  most  varied  and 
useful  kinds,  formerly  almost  unattainable  by  the  rich,  are  now  within 
the  easy  reach  of  the  poor,  and  the  comfort  and  convenience  of  common 
life  to-day  are  enormously  in  advance  of  those  enjoyed  by  our  ancestors  of  a 
century  ago. 

As  it  is  impossible  to  name  all  the  inventions  which  conduce  to  this 
increase  in  convenience,  it  will  perhaps  suffice  to  name  one  alone,  the 
friction  match,  that  most  useful  of  small  contrivances,  which  has  relegated 
into  the  museum  of  antiquities  the  slow  and  clumsy  flint  and  steel  to  which 
the  world  was  for  centuries  confined.  This  invention,  gradually  developed 
in  various  countries,  owes  its  cheapness  largely  to  the  invention  of  an 
American,  whose  patent,  taken  out  in  1836,  first  made  possible  the  produc- 
tion of  phosphorus  matches  on  a  large  scale. 

Mention  of  the  friction  match  opens  to  us  one  broad  vista  of  nine- 
teenth century  progress,  too  great  to  be  more  than  glanced  at.  This 
embraces  the  replacement  of  wood  by  coal  for  heating  purposes,  the  devel- 
opment of  the  stove,  the  furnace,  the  coal-burning  grate,  and  various  con- 
veniences of  like  character.  As  regards  the  tallow  candle,  which  was  in 


THE  TRIUMPHS  OF  INVENTION  545 

common  use  during  the  first  third  of  the  century,  it  seems  as  antiquated 
now  as  the  pyramids.     Various  kinds  of  oil  succeeded  it  as    progress  jn 
illuminants,    until   the   discovery   of    petroleum    set   them   all      illumination 
aside,   and    gave    the   world    one   of    its   most  useful    natural      and  Heatin« 
products.    Then  came  the  illuminating  gas,  and  finally  the  wonderful  electric 
light,    whose    brilliant    glow    lighted    up    the    threshold    of    the    twentieth 
century.      Petroleum,    gas    and    electricity    are    also    beginning   to    replace 
coal  for  heating  and  cooking  purposes, — as  coal  replaced  wood, — and  an  out- 
look into  the  future  seems  to  reveal  to  us  the  marvelous  electric  energy  per- 
forming these  and  a  thousand  other  services  ;  this  energy  yielded,  not  as  now, 
by  costly  fuel  dug  from  the  earth,  but  by  power  derived  from  falling  water, 
from  moving  air,  from  swelling  tides  and   flowing  currents,  and   even   from 
the  direct  light  and  heat  of  the  sun. 

We  cannot  undertake  to  describe  in  detail  the  inventions  of  the  cen- 
tury, even  all  those  of  great  service  to  mankind.  A  mere  inventory  of  these 
would  more  than  fill  this  chapter,  and  we  must  confine  ourselves  to  the 
notable  ones  of  American  origin.  Among  the  most  important  of  these 
may  be  named  the  sewing  machine,  a  device  gradually  approached  through 
a  century  of  effort,  but  not  made  workable  until  a  poor  me-  Howe  and  the 
chanic  named  Elias  Howe  attacked  the  problem,  and  worked  Sewing  Ma- 
it  out  through  years  of  penury  and  disappointment.  It  was 
the  lock-stitch  and  shuttle  to  which  he  owed  his  success,  but  these  devices, 
patented  by  him  in  1846,  were  pirated  by  wealthy  corporations,  and  years  of 
litigation  were  necessary  before  he  gained  his  rights.  He  finally  obtained 
a  royalty  of  five  dollars  for  each  machine  made  up  to  1860,  and,  after  the 
renewal  of  his  patent  in  that  year,  one  dollar  for  each  machine.  The  num- 
bers produced  were  sufficient  to  make  him  very  wealthy,  and  by  the  time 
the  original  patents  expired,  in  1877,  over  six  million  machines  had  been 
produced  and  sold  by  American  manufacturers  alone.  Aside  from  the  vast 
number  of  sewing  machines  now  used  in  families,  those  used  in  factories 
are  estimated  to  give  employment,  throughout  the  world,  to  over  20,000,000 
women. 

Another  American  invention  of  the  greatest  utility  *.s  that  of  vulcanized 
India-rubber,  the  production  of  a  poor  man  named  Charles  Goodyear,  who, 
like  Howe,  spent  years  of  his  life  and  endured  semi-starvation  while  persis- 
tently experimenting.      Beginning  in  1834,  it  was  1839  before,    Goodyear  and 
after  innumerable  failures,  he   discovered  the  secret   of  vul-     the  Vulcaniza- 
canizing  the  rubber  by  means  of  sulphur.      Before  that  date 
the   softening   effect  of    heat   rendered  rubber  practically  useless,  but  the 
vulcanized  rubber  produced  by  Goodyear  was,  before  his  death   in    1860, 


546  THE  TRIUMPHS  OF  INVENTION 

applied  to  nearly  five  hundred  purposes,  and  gave  employment  to  60,000 
persons  in  Europe  and  the  United  States.  Since  then  its  utility  has  very 
greatly  increased,  and  its  recent  employment  for  bicycle  and  carriage  tires 
opens  up  a  new  field  for  its  use  which  must  enormously  increase  the 
demand. 

Another  of  the  famous  inventions  of  the  century,  the  electric  tele- 
graph, usually  attributed  to  Samuel  Finley  Morse,  should  really  be  credited 
to  the  labors  of  several  scientists  both  in  Europe  and  America.  The  merit 
of  Morse  lay,  not  in  the  discovery  of  the  principle  of  electric 
Telegraph  telegraphy,  but  in  his  simplified  telegraphic  alphabet,  which 
has  nearly  driven  out  all  other  devices  and  has  made  its  way 
throughout  the  world.  Morse's  first  line,  completed  in  1844,  was  the 
pioneer  of  a  development  analogous  to  that  of  the  railroad.  To-day  the 
telegraph  runs  over  all  continents  and  under  almost  all  seas,  the  length  of  the 
telegraph  lines  in  the  world  at  the  end  of  the  century  being  over 
5,000,000  miles,  of  which  more  than  half  were  in  America.  The  tele- 
phone— the  marvelous  talking  telegraph — invented  by  Alexander  Bell  and 
developed  in  the  final  quarter  of  the  century,  now  has  over  half  a  million 
miles  of  wire  in  the  United  States. 

The  mention  of  the  telegraph  and  telephone  calls  to  our  attention  one 
of  the  ablest  and  most  prolific  of  American  inventors,  the  indefatigable 
Thomas  Alva  Edison,  to  whom  are  due  important  discoveries  in  multiplex 
telegraphy — the  sending  of  various  messages  at  once  over  a  single  wire — in 

telephony,  in  the  incandescent  electric  li^ht,  and  other  fields 
The  Inventions  ,  i  *  T  ••  r  i  •  i  •  •  •  i 

of  Edison          °*  research.      Most  surprising  ot   his  many  discoveries  is  the 

marvelous  phonograph,  by  which  the  sounds  of  the  human 
voice  may  be  put  on  permanent  record,  to  speak  again  in  their  original 
tones  years  or  centuries  hence. 

Other  inventors  have  been  active  in  this  field,  and  extraordinary  prog- 
ress has  been  made  in  systems  of  telegraphy,  some  of  the  new  inventions 
being  capable  of  remarkable  feats  in  the  rapid  sending  of  messages,  while 
it  is  possible  now  to  transmit  pictures  as  well  as  words  over  the  telegraphic 
wire. 

So  vast,  indeed,  has  been  the  advance  in  this  field  of  practical  science, 
so  many  the  applications  and  devices  employed,  and  so  wonderful  the  results, 
that  it  seemed  as  if  the  powers  of  telegraphy  must  be  exhausted,  when,  at 
the  very  end  of  the  century,  one  of  its  most  remarkable  results  was 
announced,  as  the  discovery  of  a  young  Italian  named  Marconi.  This  was 
the  method  of  "wireless  telegrapy,"  the  sending  of  messages  through  the 
air  without  the  aid  of  connecting  wires.  This  discovery,  like  most  others, 


THE  TRIUMPHS  OF  INVENTION  547 

cannot  be  credited  to  one  man  alone.      A  number  of  scientists  were  experi- 
menting  with   it   simultaneously,   but  to   Marconi   is  due  the   honor  of    a 
successful  and  practical  solution  of  the  problem.      It  has  long  been  known 
that  electric  energy  can    produce    effects  through   space    by   the   influence 
known  as  induction,  in  which  a  moving  current  causes  a  reverse    Marconj  and 
current  to    appear    in    a    neighboring   wire.      By  aid    of    the      wireless 
very  powerful  currents  now  produced  this  effect  may  be  shown      Telegraphy 
at   a   considerable  distance.     Whether    the    action    in    wireless    telegraphy 
is   the  result  of    induction,   or   of   a  direct    passage   of  electricity  through 
space,,  must  be  left  for  scientists  to  decide,  but  the  results  are  astonishing, 
messages   having  been  sent  and  received  over  distances  of  many  miles.      It 
is  not  well  to  state  how  many  miles,  since  the  system  is  still  in  its  infancy,  and 
before  these  words  are  read,  for  all  that  can  now  be  affirmed  to  the  contrary, 
a  message  may  be  sent  in  this  manner  from  America  to  Europe. 

Wireless  telegraphy  is  a  combination  of  science  and  invention.  Scien- 
tifically the  electric  waves  appear  to  flow  out  through  the  air  in  all  directions 
from  the  powerful  currents  employed.  Mechanically  a  lofty  pole  seems 
necessary,  and  by  the  aid  of  a  directive  contrivance  the  waves  can  be  sent 
in  a  fixed  course.  In  the  Marconi  contrivance,  the  electric  waves,  when 
received,  are  made  to  pass  through  a  vial  containing  metal  filings,  which  are 
caused  to  cohere  so  as  to  furnish  a  direct  line  of  passage  for  the  current. 
Marconi's  special  invention  is  a  small  tapper  which  strikes  the  vial  of  filings 
and  causes  them  to  fall  asunder,  thus  breaking  the  current.  The  public  at 
large,  however,  is  likely  to  be  more  interested  in  results  than  methods,  and 
in  the  system  of  wireless  telegraphy  there  is  promise  of  a  development  that 
may  supplant  all  existing  telegraphic  systems  during  the  century  upon  whose 
threshold  we  stand. 

In  no  field  of  effort  have  inventors  been  more  active  or  their  results 
more  useful  than  in  the  production  of  labor-saving  devices  in  agriculture. 
In  these  we  have  to  do  with  the  yield  of  food,  the  very  corner-stone  of  life 
itself,  and  whatever  seems  to  increase  the  product  of  the  fields,    Labor-saving 
or  to  cheapen  the  necessaries  of  life,  is  of  the  most  direct  and       Agricultural 
immediate  utility  to  mankind.     This  subject,  therefore,  one  of 
vital  interest  to  all  the  farmers  of  our  country,  calls  for  special  notice  here. 

Great  inventions  are  not  necessarily  large  or  costly.  The  scythe  is  a 
simple  and  inexpensive  tool ;  yet  the  practical  perfecting  of  it  by  Joseph 
Jenks,  almost  at  the  outset  of  farm-life  in  New  England,  formed  an  epoch- 
mark  in  agriculture.  It  was  the  beginning  of  a  new  order  of  things.  Put- 
ting curved  fingers  to  the  improved  scythe-blade  and  snath  did  for  the 
harvester  what  had  been  done  for  the  grass-cutter,  gave  him  an  implement 


54S  THE  TRIUMPHS  OF  INVENTION 

which  doubled  or  trebled  his  efficiency  at  a  critical  season,  and  furnished  in 

the  American  grain  cradle  a  farm-tool  perfect  of  its  kind,  and 

Early  Farming     likely  to  hold  its  place  as  long  as  grain  is  grown  on  uneven 

ground.      For  the  great  bulk  of  grain  and  grain-cutting,  the 

scythe  and  the  cradle  have  been  displaced  by  later  American  inventions, — 

mowers  and  harvesters,  operated  by  animal  or  steam  power, — still  they  are 

likely  to  remain  forever  a  part  of  every  farm's  equipment.     Their  utility  is 

beyond  computation. 

The  plow  supplied  to  the  Colonial  farmers,  was  as  venerable  as  the 
reaping-hook.  It  had  been  substantially  unimproved  for  four  thousand 
years.  The  moment  our  people  were  free  to  manufacture  for  themselves, 
they  set  about  its  improvement  in  form  and  material,  the  very  first  patent 
granted  by  the  National  Patent  Office  being  for  an  improved  plow  of  cast- 
iron.  The  best  plow  then  in  use  was  a  rude  affair,  clumsily  made,  hard  to 
guide,  and  harder  to  draw.  It  had  a  share  of  wrought  iron,  roughly  shaped 
by  the  roadside  black-smith,  a  landside  and  standard  of  wood,  and  an  ill- 
shaped  mould-board  plated  with  tin,  sheet  iron,  or  worn-out  saw-plates. 
Only  a  stout  man  could  hold  it,  and  a  yoke  of  oxen  was  needed  for  work 
that  a  colt  can  do  with  a  modern  plow.  Its  improvement  engaged  the  atten- 
tion of  many  inventors,  notably  President  Jefferson,  who  experimented  with 
various  forms  and  made  a  mathematical  investigation  of  the  shape  of  the 
mould-board,  to  determine  the  form  best  suited  for  the  work.  He  was  the 
first  to  discover  the  importance  of  straight  lines  from  the  sole  to  the  top  of 
the  share  and  mould-board.  Pinckney  discovered  the  value  of  a  straight 
line  from  front  to  rear.  Jethro  Wood  discovered  that  all  lines,  from  front 
to  rear,  should  be  straight.  The  method  of  drafting  the  lines,  on  a  plane 
surface,  in  designing  plows,  is  due  to  Knox.  The  discovery  of  the  import- 
ance of  the  centre-draught,  and  the  practical  means  of  attaining  it  by  the 
The  Deveio  -  inclination  of  the  landside  inward,  is  credited  to  Mears.  Gov- 
mentof  the  ernor  Holbrook,  of  New  Hampshire,  devised  the  method  of 
American  making  plows  of  any  size  symmetrical,  so  as  to  ensure  the 
complete  pulverization  of  the  soil.  Col.  Randolph,  Jefferson's 
son-in-law,  "the  best  farmer  in  Virginia,"  invented  a  side-hill  plow.  Smith 
was  the  first  to  hitch  two  plows  together ;  and  Allen,  by  combining  a  num- 
ber of  small  plow-points  in  one  implement,  led  the  way  to  the  production  of 
the  infinite  variety  of  horse-hoes,  cultivators,  and  the  like,  for  special  use. 
But  Jethro  Wood,  of  New  York,  in  1819  and  after,  probably  did  more  thanj 
any  other  man  to  perfect  the  cast-iron  plow,  and  to  secure  its  general  use 
in  place  of  the  cumbrous  plows  of  the  earlier  days.  His  skill  as  an  inventor, 
and  his  pluck  as  a  fighter  against  stolid  ignorance  and  prejudice,  for  the 


THE  TRIUMPHS  OF  INVENTION  549 

advancement  of  sensible  plowing,  cost  him — what  they  ought  to  have  gained 
for  him — a  fortune.  The  use  of  cast-iron  plows  had  become  general  by 
1825. 

The  construction  of  plows  has  since  been  taken  up  by  a  multitude  of 
inventors,   the  most  valuable  of  improvements,   probably,  coming  through 
the   use  of  chilled   iron,  and   the   most  promising  from   the  application  of 
steam-power  to  plowing.    The  increase  in  the  working  power 
of  the  farmer,  from  American  improvements  in  plows,  may  be      Working 
estimated    from  the    fact  that    two  million  plowmen,  with  as      Power  of 
many  teams,  would  need  to  work  every  day  in  the  year  with 
the  primitive  plow  to  prepare  the  soil  annually  under  cultivation  in  this 
country.      It  would   be  impossible,    under  the  ancient  system,    to  do    this 
work  within  the  brief  plowing  season. 

The  era  of  agricultural  machinery  began  about  1825,  its  earliest  piiase 
appearing  in  the  application  of  horse-power  to  the  threshing  and  cleaning 
of  grain.  Already  the  American  tendency  to  seek  practical  results  by 
the  simplest  means,  and  to  make  high-priced  labor  profitable  by  increasing 
its  efficiency,  had  been  shown  in  the  improvement  of  a  wide  range  of  farm- 
er's tools,  almost  everything  they  had  to  use  being  made  lighter,  neater, 
and  more  serviceable.  The  same  improving,  practical  sense  was  displayed 
in  devising  more  complicated  labor-saving  machines,  which  made  it  possible 
to  do  easily  and  directly  what  had  been  previously  difficult  or  quite  impos- 
sible to  do.  Too  often,  however,  the  early  inventor  was  defeated  by  the 
lack  of  skilled  labor  and  proper  machine  tools  for  making  his  improvements 
commercially  successful.  As  soon  as  the  mechanic  arts  had  been  sufficiently 
perfected  and  extended — largely  by  American  genius — the  development  and 
production  of  agricultural  machinery  became  rapid  and  profitable. 

Washington  had  tried  a  sort  of  threshing  machine  as  early  as  1798; 
and  one  of  the  first  patents  issued  by  the  Patent  Office  was  for  an  improved 
thresher;  yet  the  flail  held  the  field  until  after  1825.  In  the  following 
twenty-five  years  over  two  hundred  patents  were  granted  for  improvements 
in  threshers,  and  since  then  the  patents  have  numbered  thou-  Tnreshjng 
sands.  By  1840,  most  of  the  grain  was  threshed  by  horse-  Machines 
driven  machinery.  In  1853,  when  a  famous  trial  of  rival 
threshers  was  held  in  England,  the  American  machine  did 
three  times  as  much  as  the  best  English  machine,  and  did  it  better.  In  a 
subsequent  trial  in  France,  the  average  work  of  experts  with  the  flail  being 
reckoned  as  on-e,  that  of  the  best  French  machine  was  twenty-five ;  of  the 
best  English  machine,  forty-one  ;  while  Pitt's  American  machine  did  the 


550 


THE  TRIUMPHS  OF  INVENTION 


work  of  seventy-four.  The  application  of  steam-power  greatly  increased 
the  efficiency  of  threshing  machines,  raising  the  output  from  perhaps  2,000 
bushels  a  day  to  six  or  seven  thousand  for  a  single  machine. 

Still  more  significant  a'nd  important  have  been  the  victories  of  Amer- 
ican inventors  in  connection  with  mowers  and  reapers.  The  circumstance 
that  reaping  by  machinery  is  as  old  as  the  Christian  era,  and  that  a  multi- 
tude of  comparatively  modern  attempts  have  been  made,  particularly  in 
England,  to  apply  horse-power_to  the  cutting  of  grass  and  grain,  only  added 
to  the  merit  of  inventors  like  Hussey  and  McCormick,  who  practically 
solved  the  problems  involved  by  means  so  simple  and  efficient  that  they 
The  American  have  not  been  and  are  likely  never  to  be  entirely  displaced. 
Reapers  and  Hussey's  mowing  machine  of  1833  had  reciprocating  knives 
working  through  slotted  fingers,  a  feature  not  only  new  but 
essential  to  all  practical  grass  and  grain  cutters,  except  the  special  type 
known  as  lawn-mowers.  McCormick  patented  a  combination  reaper  and 
mower  in  1834,  which  he  subsequently  so  improved  as  to  make  it  the  neces- 
sary basis  of  all  reapers.  In  competitive  trials  at  home  and  abroad,  the 
American  mowers  and  reapers  have  never  failed  to  demonstrate  their 
superiority  over  all  others. 

The  first  great  victory,  which  gave  these  machines  the  world-wide  fame 
they  have  so  successfully  maintained,  was  won  in  London  in  1851.  In  the 
competitive  trial  near  Paris,  in  1855,  the  American  machine  cut  an  acre  of 
oats  in  twenty-two  minutes;  the  English  in  sixty-six  minutes;  the  French 
in  seventy-two.  In  the  later  competition,  local  and  international,  their 
superior  efficiency  has  been  not  less  signally  manifested.  By  increasing 
the  efficiency  of  the  harvester  twenty-fold  (and  twice  that  by  the  self- 
binders),  these  products  of  American  invention  have  played  a  part  second 
only  to  railroads  in  opening  up  the  West  to  profitable  cultivation,  rapidly 
converting  a  wilderness  into  the  granary  of  the  world.  Devices  for  bind- 
ing grain  as  it  was  cut  began  to  be  developed  about  1855. 
The  first  ™achine  used  wire  binders  ;  the  later  twine.  The 
combination  of  reapers  and  threshers  in  one  machine  has  been 
most  largely  developed  in  California.  The  largest  in  use  there  weighs  eight 
tons  ;  and,  pushed  by  thirty  mules,  cuts  a  swath  twenty-two  feet  wide  and 
eighteen  miles  long  in  a  day — over  forty-eight  acres,  yielding  about  as  many 
tons  of  wheat,  which  is  cut,  threshed,  cleaned  and  deposited  in  700  sacks. 
The  machine  employs  a  driver,  a  shearer,  a  knife- tender,  and  a  sack-lowerer 
— four  men,  costing  eight  dollars  a  day  for  wages. 

Less  important  individually,  yet  in  the  aggregate  of  incalculable  assist- 
ance to  agriculture,  have  been  a  multitude  of  American  inventions  intended 


THE  TRIUMPHS  GF  INVENTION  551 

to  expedite  and  lighten    the   farmer's  work — stump   and   stone    extractors 
for  clearing  the  ground,   ditching  machines  for  drainage  systems,  fencing 
devices,  particularly  the  barbed  wire  fence,  special  plows  for  breaking  up 
new  ground,  harrows  of  many  types,   seeders, 'planters,  culti-   TheQreat 
vators,  horse  rakes,  hay  tedders  and  hay  loaders,  potato  and      variety  of 
rock  diggers,  corn  huskers  and  shelters,  cotton  pickers,  and      Agricultural 
countless  other  labor-saving  tools  and  devices.      In  most  cases 
these  improved  appliances  enable  one  man  to  do  easily  the  work  of  several 
working  with   primitive   tools.     With   the   help    of    machine    planters  and 
seeders  the  farmer's  work  is  made  at  least  five  times  more  efficient ;  with 
cultivators,  ten  times  ;  with  potato  diggers,  twenty  ;  with  harrowers,  thirty ; 
with  mowers  and  harvesters,  from  twenty  to  fifty ;  with  corn  huskers  and 
shellers,    a   hundred.     The   latest    cotton   harvester,    employing  a  team,   a 
driver,  and  a  helper,  does  the  work  of  forty  hand-pickers. 

These  agricultural  machines,  by  greatly  cheapening  all  food  products, 
have  had  a  wider  influence,  probably,  than  any  other  group  of  American 
inventions.  In  connection  with  improvements  in  means  of  transportation — 
largely  of  American  origin — they  have  changed  the  food  conditions  of  half 
the  world,  making  food  more  abundant,  more  varied,  more  wholesome,  more 
secure,  and  vastly  cheaper  than  ever  before.  At  the  same  time  they  have 
lightened  the  farmer's  labor,  shortened  his  hours  of  toil,  increased  his  gains, 
and  quite  transformed  his  social  and  industrial  position. 

The  marvelous  evolution  in  the  nineteenth  century,  of  which  we  have 
mentioned  only  some  of  the  more  notable  particulars,  the  whole  story  being 
far  too  voluminous  to  deal  with  here,  has  had  the  result  of  immensely  increas- 
ing the  wealth  of  the  world  and  the  cheapness  and  rapid  distribution  of  pro- 
ducts, and  of  placing  within  the  ready  control  of  mankind  hundreds  of 
articles  of  art  and  utility  scarcely  dreamed  of  a  century  ago.  In  textile 
production,  in  metal  working,  in  the  making  of  furniture,  clothing  and  other 
articles  of  ordinary  use,  in  heating  and  illumination,  in  travel  and  transporta- 
tion of  goods,  farm  operations,  engineering,  mining  and  Productive 
excavation,  and  the  production  of  the  tools  of  peace  and  the  Activity  of  the 
weapons  of  war,  in  ways,  indeed,  too  numerous  to  mention,  the  Nineteenth 
inventive  activity  and  the  industrial  energy  of  the  nineteenth 
century  have  added  enormously  to  the  variety  and  abundance  of  useful 
objects  at  man's  disposal,  increased  his  wealth  to  an  extraordinary  extent, 
and  enabled  him  to  move  over  land  and  sea  with  marvelous  ease  and 
speed,  and  to  send  information  around  the  world  with  a  rapidity  that 
almost  annihilates  time  and  space. 


552  THE  TRIUMPHS  OF  INVENTION 

Not  the  least  among  the  results  of  modern  mechanical  progress  is  the 
vast  development  in  commerce,  and  particularly  in  that  of  the  Anglo-Saxon 
people — the  inhabitants  of  Great  Britain  and  the  United  States — the  com- 
mercial enterprise  of  which  countries  is  nowhere  else  equalled.  The  ocean 
commerce  of  the  United  States,  for  instance,  has  nearly  doubled  within  thirty 
years,  and  now  amounts  to  nearly  $2,000,000,000  worth  of  goods  annually, 

two-thirds  of  which  are  articles  of  export.  But  this  great  sum 
Commerce  of  the  jg  £ar  from  indicating-  the  actual  commerce  of  this  country, 
United  States  ...  ... 

since    it  is  greatly  surpassed    by  its  interior  commerce,   the 

movement  of  goods  by  aid  of  river,  canal,  and  railroad  from  part  to  part  of 
the  vast  area  of  the  United  States,  the  extent  of  which  commerce  it  is 
impossible  even  to  estimate. 

The  statement  of  a  single  fact  will  suffice  to  put  in  striking  prominence 
the  result  of  this  in  increasing  the  value  of  property  and  the  wealth  of 
the  people  of  this  country.  In  the  year  1801,  the  opening  year  of  the 
century,  the  ideas  entertained  of  riches  differed  remarkably  from  what  they 
do  now.  At  that  time  it  is  doubtful  if  there  was  a  person  in  this  country 
worth  more  than  a  quarter  million  of  dollars.  Thirty  years  afterwards, 
Stephen  Girard,  with  an  estate  of  about  nine  million  dollars,  was  looked 
upon  as  a  prodigy  of  wealth,  and  his  reputation  as  a  man  of  immense  riches 
spread  round  the  world.  In  1900,  the  closing  year  of  the  century,  there 
were  single  estates. worth  more  than  two  hundred  million  dollars,  and  the 
number  of  millionairs  in  the  United  States  could  be  counted 
by  the  nundreds-  As  regards  the  largest  estates  possessed 
in  1801,  there  are  thousands  among  us  with  greater  wealth 
to-day,  while  the  general  average  of  property  possessed  by  our  citizens  has 
very  greatly  advanced. 

If  it  be  asked  in  what  this  wealth  consists,  it  may  be  said  that  the  rail- 
road property  of  the  country  alone  suffices  to  account  for  a  considerable 
proportion  of  it.  The  assets  of  the  railroads  of  the  United  States  are 
valued  at  over  $12,000,000,000,  and  the  annual  profits  of  their  business 
amounts  to  a  very  great  sum.  Another  immense  source  of  wealth  is  the 
landed  property  of  the  United  States,  the  annual  product  of  which  alone  is 
worth  over  $3,000,000,000.  A  third  great  element  of  wealth  consists  in  the 
dwellings  and  other  buildings  of  cities  and  towns ;  and  a  fourth  in  the  build- 
ings and  machinery  of  manufacturing  enterprises,  whose  annual  products 
alone  are  valued  at  more  than  $10,000,000,000.  It  will  suffice  here  to  name 
a  fifth  great  source  of  wealth,  our  mines  and  their  productions,  particularly 
those  of  coal,  iron  and  precious  metals.  The  annual  yield  of  coal  alone  is 
worth  more  than  $200,000,000;  that  of  iron  more  than  $90,000,000;  those  cf 


TRIUMPHS  OF  INVENTION  553 

gold  and  silver  more  than  $100,000,000.  To  these  maybe  added  an  annual 
production  of  nearly  $60,000,000  worth  of  copper,  and  as  much  of  petroleum 
and  its  products — each  of  which  nearly  equals  gold  in  value, — $12,000,000 
worth  of  lead,  and  large  values  of  other  minerals ;  the  grand  total  being 
over  $750,000,000. 

If  these  figures  should  be  extended  to  cover  the  world,  the  total 
sum  of  values  would  be  something  astounding.  What  we  are  principally 
concerned  with  here  is  the  fact  that  this  vast  total  of  wealth  is  expansion  of 
very  largely  the  result  of  nineteenth  century  enterprise,  and  Vaiues  During 
mainly  as  applied  in  Europe  and  the  northern  section  of  North  the  Century 
America.  What  the  percentage  of  increase  in  value  has  been  it  is  quite 
impossible  to  state,  but  the  wealth  of  the  world  as  a  whole  is  probably  more 
than  double  what  it  was  a  century  ago,  while  that  of  such  expanding  coun- 
tries as  the  United  States  has  increased  in  a  vastly  greater  proportion. 
That  this  growth  in  wealth  will  go  on  during  the  twentieth  century  cannot  be 
doubted,  but  that  the  proportionate  rate  of  increase  will  equal  that  of  the 
century  now  at  its  end  may  well  be  questioned,  the  inventive  activity  and 
application  of  nature's  forces  within  this  century  having  reached  a  develop- 
ment which  seems  to  preclude  as  great  a  future  rate  of  progress.  The 
nineteenth  may,  therefore,  perhaps  remain  the  banner  century  in  material 
progress. 


CHAPTER   XXXVIIL 

The  Evolution  in  Industry  and  the  Revolt 
Against   Capital. 

INDUSTRY  in  the  past  centuries  was  a  strikingly  different  thing  from 
what  it  has  been  in  the  recent  period.      For  a  centure  it  has  been  pass- 
ing  through    a   great    process  of   evolution,  which    has  by  no    means 
reached  its  culmination,  and  whose  final  outcome  no  man  can  safely  predict. 
For  a  long  period  during  the  mediaeval  and  the  subsequent  centuries 
industry  existed  In  a  stable  condition,  or  one  whose  changes  were  few  and 
The  Conditions     none   °f  them   revolutionary.     Manufacture   was    in   a   large 
of  Mediaeval      sense  individual.     The  great  hive  of  industry  known  as  a  fac- 
Industry  torv  jj^  not  exjst)  workshops  being  small  and  every  expert 

mechanic  able  to  conduct  business  as  a  master.  Employees  were  mainly 
apprentices,  each  of  whom  expected  to  become  a  master  mechanic,  or,  if  he 
chose  to  work  for  a  master,  did  so  with  an  independence  that  no  longer 
exists.  The  workshop  was  usually  a  portion  of  the  dwelling,  where  the  master 
worked  with  his  apprentices,  teaching  them  the  whole  art  and  mystery  of 
his  craft,  and  giving  them  knowledge  of  a  complete  trade,  not  of  a  minor 
portion  of  one  as  in  our  day. 

The  trade-union  had  its  prototype  in  the  guild.  But  this  was  in  no 
sense  a  combination  of  labor  for  protection  against"  capital,  but  of  master 
workmen  to  protect  their  calling  from  being  swamped  by  invasion  from 
without.  In  truth,  when  we  go  back  into  the  past  centuries,  it  is  to  find 
ourselves  in  another  world  of  labor,  radically  different  from  that  which  sur- 
rounds us  to-day. 

It  was  the  steam-engine  that  precipitated  the  revolution.     This  great 

invention  rendered  possible  labor-saving  machinery.    From  working  directly 

upon  the  material,  men  began  to  work  indirectly  through  the 

the  Revoiu-      medium  of  machines.     As  a  result  the  old  household  indus- 

tion  in  the         tries  rapidly  disappeared.     Engines  and  machines  needed  spe- 

Labor  System      .    .    .      .,,.  .        ,  ,    .  , 

cial  buildings  to  contain  them  and  large  sums  of  money  to 
purchase  them,  the  separation  of  capital  and  labor  began,   and  the  nine- 
teenth century  opened  with  the  factory  system  fully  launched  upon  the  world. 
554 


E  VOL  UTION  IN  IND  USTR  Y  555 

The  century  with  which  we  are  concerned  is  the  one  of  vast  accumula- 
tions of  capital  in  single  hands  or  under  the  control  of  companies,  the 
concentration  of  labor  in  factories  and  workshops,  the  extraordinary 
development  of  labor-saving  machines,  the  growth  of  monopolies  on  the 
one  hand  and  of  labor  unions  on  the  other,  the  revolt  of  labor  against 
the  tyranny  of  capital,  the  battle  for  shorter  hours  and  higher  wages,  the 
coming  of  woman  into  the  labor  field  as  a  rival  of  man,  the  development  of 
economic  theories  and  industrial  organizations,  and  in  still  present  Aspect 
other  ways  the  growth  of  a  state  of  affairs  in  the  world  of  of  the  Labor 
industry  that  had  no  counterpart  in  the  past,  and  which  we  QuestJ 
hope  may  not  extend  far  into  the  future,  since  it  involves  a  condition  of 
anarchy,  injustice,  and  violence  that  is  certainly  not  calculated  to  advance 
the  interests  of  mankind. 

In  past  times  wealth  was  largely  accumulated  in  the  hands  of  the 
nobility,  who  had  no  thought  of  using  it  productively.  Such  of  it  as  lay 
under  the  control  of  the  commonalty  was  applied  mainly  for  commercial 
purposes  and  in  usury,  and  comparatively  little  was  used  in  manufacture. 
This  state  of  affairs  came  somewhat  suddenly  to  an  end  with  the  invention 
of  the  steam-engine  and  of  labor-saving  machinery.  Capital 
was  largely  diverted  to  purposes  of  manufacture,  wealth  grew 
rapidly  as  a  result  of  the  new  methods  of  production,  the 
making  of  articles  cheaply  required  costly  plants  in  buildings  and  machinery 
which  put  it  beyond  the  reach  of  the  ordinary  artisan,  the  old  individuality 
in  labor  disappeared,  the  number  of  employers  largely  diminished  and  that 
of  employees  increased,  and  the  mediaeval  guild  vanished,  the  workmen 
finding  themselves  exposed  to  a  state  of  affairs  unlike  that  for  which  their 
old  organizations  were  devised. 

A  radically  new  condition  of  industrial  affairs  had  come,  and  the 
industrial  class  was  not  prepared  to  meet  it.  Everywhere  the  employers 
became  supreme  and  the  men  were  at  their  mercy.  Labor  was  dismayed. 
Its  unions  lost  their  industrial  character  and  resumed  their  original  form  of 
purely  benevolent  associations.  Such  was  the  state  of  affairs  in  the  early 
years  of  the  nineteenth  century.  Industry  was  in  a  stage  of  transition,  and 
inevitably  suffered  from  the  change.  It  was  only  at  a  later  date  that  the 
idea  of  mutual  aid  in  industry  revived,  and  the  trade  union — a  new  form  of 
association  adapted  to  the  new  situation — arose  as  the  lineal  successor  of 
the  old  society  of  artisans. 

The  trade  union  resembles  the  old  industrial  association  in  general  char- 
acter, and  in  modes  of  action,  but  is  much  more  extensive  and  concentrated  in 
organization  and  far-seeing  in  management,  in  accordance  with  the  vast 


555  E  VOL  UTION  IN  IND  USTR  Y 

expansion    of    industries    and  the    changed  relations  of   the  workingman. 

The  new  form  of  association  was  not  welcomed    by  the  employers,  who 

scented    danger   afar.     They  attacked  it  in  the  press,  in  the 

>n  legislature,  and  by  every  means  at  their  command.   But  the  trade 

union   had  come  to  stay,  hostile  legislation  failed    to    destroy  it,  and    the 

opposition    of    employers    to    check    its    growth.      It    slowly,    but    steadily 

advanced,  increased  in  strength  and   unity  of    purpose,  gained   legislative 

recognition,  and  in  time  became  a  legally  protected  institution  and  one  of 

the  powerful  forces  in  modern  industry. 

The  trade  union  had  its  origin  in  England,  in  which  country  the  modern 
conditions  of  industry  rapidly  gained  a  great  development.  It  appeared  in 
a  crude  form  near  the  end  of  the  eighteenth  century,  one  of  the  earliest 
societies  known  being  the  "  Institution,"  established  by  the  cloth-workers  of 
Halifax  in  1796.  Many  other  unions  were  formed  during  the  first  twenty 
years  of  the  nineteenth  century,  in  spite  of  persecution  and  attempts  at  re- 
pression. It  was  not  until  1825,  however,  that  they  gained  legal  recognition, 
and  not  until  1871  that  they  obtained  permanent  protection  for  their  property 
and  funds.  Some  of  the  earlier  unions  still  survive,  though  many  changes 
have  taken  place  in  their  constitution. 

In  1850  a  new  departure  was  taken,  in  the  formation  of  the  Amalgam- 
ated Society  of  Engineers,  one  of  the  most  perfect  types  of  a  trade  union 
in  the  world.  It  is  organized  for  the  mutual  benefit  of  its  members  as  well 
as  for  protection  against  oppression  by  employers,  and  the  annual  tax  upon 
Progress  and  ^ts  members  for  various  purposes  amounts  to  as  much  as 
Purpose  of  $15.00  per  year,  often  more.  Others  of  the  same  character 
followed,  and  in  all  there  are  about  2,000  trade  unions  in 
Great  Britain  and  Ireland,  with  a  membership  of  nearly  2,250,000,  and  an 
annual  income  of  about  $10,000,000. 

The  purposes  of  the  union  are  various.  The  mutual  aid  and  benefit 
feature  is  secondary  to  the  protective  purpose,  which  is  to  secure  the  most 
favorable  conditions  of  labor  that  can  be  obtained.  This  includes  efforts  to 
raise  wages  and  to  prevent  their  fall,  reduction  of  hours  of  labor  and  pre- 
vention of  their  increase,  the  regulation  of  apprentices,  overtime,  piecework, 
and  many  other  difficulties  which  arise  in  the  complicated  relations  of  labor 
and  capital. 

It  is  generally  acknowledged  that  the  trade  union  has  reached  its 
highest  state  of  organization  and  power  in  Great  Britain,  and  that  the 
British  workman,  in  consequence,  controls  the  situation  more  fully  than  in 
any  other  country.  This  form  of  organization  has  only  of  late  years 
appeared  on  the  continent  of  Europe,  freedom  to  combine  have  been  denied 


THE  HERO  OF  THE  STRIKE,  COAL  CREEK,  TENN. 

In  1893  a  period  of  great  labor  agitation  began,  lasting  for  several  years.      One  of  the  most   heroic  figures  of 
troublous  times  is  Colonel  Anderson,  under  a  flag  of  truce,  meeting  the  infuriated  miner*  at  Coal  Creek. 


EVOLUTION  IN  INDUSTRY  559 

to  workmen  in  most  countries  until  late  in  the  century.  There  are  excellent 
unions  in  the  Australian  colonies,  both  these  and  those  of  the  mother  coun- 
try being  superior  in  organization  and  influence  to  the  trade  unions  of  the 
United  States,  though  those  of  the  latter  country  have  gained  much  in 
power  and  cohesion  in  recent  years. 

The  first  great  combination  of  all  trades  was  the  International  Work- 
ing-men's Association,  founded  in  London  in  1847,  and  in-  „ 

The  Interna- 

tended  to  combine  the  industrial  classes  throughout  Europe.  tional  Work- 
Dr.  Karl  Marx  gave  it  a  definite  organization  on  the  con-  ingmen's  AS- 
tinent  in  1864,  but  it  was  there  warped  widely  from  its  orig- 
inal purpose,  became  a  field  for  anarchists,  and  came  to  an  end  in  1872.  In 
the  United  States  a  general  organization  called  the  Knights  of  Labor  was 
formed  in  1869,  and  at  one  time  had  a  membership  of  a  million,  but  has 
now  greatly  decreased,  'being  largely  replaced  by  the  American  Federation 
of  Labor,  an  association  of  trade  unions  of  very  large  membership.  Of 
single  trade  organizations  probably  the  most  powerful  in  this  country  is  the 
Brotherhood  of  Carpenters  and  Joiners,  with  more  than  60,000  members. 
The  International  Typographical  Union,  the  oldest  in  America,  has  a 
membership  of  over  40,000,  and  there  are  many  others  of  great  strength. 

The  weapon  of  offense  with  which  the  labor  organization  seeks  to  gain 
its  ends  is  the  strike,  in  which  the  artisans  quit  work  for  the  purpose  of 
forcing  employers  to  grant  their  demands,  and  endeavor  to  prevent  others 
from  taking  their  place.  The  reverse  of  this  is  the  lock-out,  an  expedient 
adopted  by  capitalists  for  the  purpose  of  obliging  workmen  to  yield  to 
their  demands. 

During  the  century  under  consideration  strikes  have  been  very  numer- 
ous both  in  England  and  America,  many  of  them  of  great  dimensions  and 
serious  results.  It  must  suffice  to  speak  of  some  of  the  more  important 
of  those  within  the  United  States.  In  1803  occurred  a  strike  of  sailors 
in  New  York,  often  spoken  of  as  the  first  strike  in  this 

,     .         ,         The  System  of 

country,  though  there  seem  to  have  been  several  in  the  the  strike 
preceding  century.  A  strike  of  Philadelphia  shoemakers 
took  place  in  1805  anc^  one  of  New  York  cordwainers  in  1809,  while  as  time 
went  on  strikes  became  frequent,  with  varying  results  of  success  and 
failure.  Violence  was  at  times  resorted  to,  and  in  the  early  days  strikers 
were  tried  for  conspiracy.  As  population  increased  and  labor  associa- 
tions became  stronger,  strikes  grew  greatly  in  dimensions,  and  were  fre- 
quently attended  with  bloodshed  and  destruction.  Such  was  the  case 
with  the  famous  railroad  strike  of  1877,  which  interrupted  traffic  over  great 
part  of  the  country  fora  week,  and  resulted  in  acts  of  sanguinary  violence  at 
31 


56o  £  VOL  UTION  IN  INDUSTR  Y 

Pittsburg.      There    a    lawless    mob   joined    the    strikers,    the    militia  were 

attacked    and    lives    were    lost,    and    the    railroad    buildings 

^strike™6'      *    an<^    cars    were    burned,    the    total    loss    being    estimated    at 

$5,000,000.      The    coal    miners    of     Pennsylvania   joined    the 

strike,  and  in  all  about  150,000  men  stopped  work. 

Since  that  date  strikes  have  been  very  numerous  and  some  of  them  of 
great  proportions.  Among  these,  one  of  the  most  notable  was  that  which 
began  in  Chicago  on  May  i,  1886,  in  which  fully  40,000  men  took  part.  On 
the  4th,  when  the  disorder  was  at  its  height,  a  meeting  of  Anarchists  was  held, 
in  the  streets,  which  the  police  attempted  to  disperse  on  account  of  the  violent 
and  threatening  language  used.  While  doing  so  a  dynamite  bomb  was 
thrown  in  their  midst,  which  killed  several  and  wounded  about  sixty  of  the 
officers.  This  action  was  denounced  by  workingmen  throughout  the 
country  and  excited  general  horror  and  detestation. 

Another  serious  strike  took  place  at  the  Carnegie  Steel-Works,  at 
Homestead,  Pa.,  in  1892,  which  was  also  attended  with  bloodshed,  the 
workmen  firing  on  a  force  of  detectives  hired  to  protect  the  works.  The 
disturbance  became  so  great  that  the  whole  military  force  of  Pennsylvania 
had  to  be  called  out.  Two  years  afterwards  Chicago  was  the  scene  of  a  great 
railroad  strike,  directed  against  the  Pullman  Car  Works  of  that  city.  The 
movement  of  trains  was  greatly  interfered  with,  and  in  the  end  President 
Cleveland  sent  United  States  troops  to  Chicago  to  maintain  order  and  pro- 
tect the  movement  of  the  mails. 

That  the  difficulty  between  capital  and  labor  will  ever  be  settled  by  the 

strike  and  the  lock-out  cannot  be  expected,  though  these  methods  of  warfare 

have  had  the  effect  of  producing  some  degree  of  wholesome  fear  on  both 

sides,  and  of  rendering  each  more  likely  to   offer  concessions 

Arbitration  and       ,  -11         •  i  iiiri-r  AT 

Profit  Sharing  than  to  indulge  in  a  costly  and   doubtful  strile.      A  disposition 

to  replace  violent  measures  by  peaceful  arbitration  is  grow- 
ing up,  while  in  some  instances  employers  have  agreed  to  share  a  portion  of 
their  profits  with  their  employees.  This  system  of  profit  sharing,  origi- 
nating in  France,  has  been  extended  to  other  countries,  and  appears  to  have 
proved  very  generally  successful.  Workmen  act  as  if  they  were  real 
partners  in  the  business,  and  had  their  own  interests  to  serve.  They  do 
more  and  better  work,  and  are  more  careful  in  the  use  of  tools  and  mate- 
rials, so  that  in  some  instances  the  increased  profit  arising  from  their 
carefulness  and  diligence  has  covered  their  share  of  the  proceeds,  leaving 
that  of  their  employers  undiminished.  Strikes  have  almost  ceased  to  exist 
in  such  institutions,  and  the  future  of  profit-sharing  is  full  of  promise. 


E  VOL  UTION  IN  INDUSTR  Y  561 

But  expedients  which  leave  the  existing  system  practically  unchanged 
can  have  only  a  temporary  and  partial  utility.  The  cause  of  the  difficulty 
appears  to  lie  deeper  and  to  call  for  more  radical  changes.  It  is  not  easy  to 
believe  that  a  system  of  perpetual  protest  and  frequent  strife  is  Experiments 
a  natural  one,  and  it  seems  as  if  it  must  in  the  future  be  and  Theories 
replaced  by  some  more  peaceful  and  satisfactory  relation  be-  ln  Economics 
tween  capital  and  labor.  During  the  nineteenth  century  the  labor  problem 
has  given  rise  to  a  number  of  experiments  and  theories  looking  towards  its 
solution,  an  account  of  which  is  here  in  place. 

The  chief  of  the  experiments  alluded  to  is  that  of  co-operation,  the 
association  of  workingmen  as  producers,  a  democratic  organization  of  labor 
calculated,  if  successfully  instituted,  to  bring  the  present  system  to  an  end, 
and  replace  it  by  one  in  which  the  division  into  employer  and  employee, 
capitalist  and  artisan,  will  cease  to  exist,  each  workman  embracing  both  of 
these  in  his  single  person,  the  combined  property  of  the  group  representing 
the  capital  of  the  concern  and  the  profits  being  equitably  divided.  This 
seemingly  promising  solution  of  the  problem  has  not  hitherto  proved  satis- 
factory in  practice.  In  most  cases  experience  and  skill  in  management  have 
been  wanting,  and  the  placing  of  ambitious  and  influential  members  of  the 
association  in  the  positions  of  business  manager  and  financier,  regardless  of 
their  adaptation  to  these  duties,  has  wrecked  more  than  one  promising 
co-operative  concern. 

But  while  most  of  such  manufacturing  associations  of  workingmen 
have  failed,  some  have  succeeded,  and  the  story  of  the  latter  seems  to  show 
that  there  is  nothing  false  in  the  principle,  the  failure  being  due  to  the 
results  of  injudicious  management,  as  above  indicated.  The  successful 
associations  have  accumulated  large  capital,  pay  good  dividends,  and  are 
noted  for  the  honesty  of  their  operations  and  the  unusual 
industry  of  their  members,  each  of  whom  feels  that  the  profit 
from  increased  or  superior  product  will  come  to  himself.  Of 
co-operative  institutions  now  in  existence,  the  most  famous  is  that  of  the 
Rochdale  Pioneers,  founded  at  Rochdale,  England,  in  1844.  This  associa- 
tion, organized  by  twenty-eight  poor  weavers  with  a  capital  of  twenty-eight 
pounds,  at  first  as  a  distributive  enterprise,  is  now  a  rich  and  flourishing 
institution,  which  adds  manufacturing  to  its  distributive  interests. 

At  first  these  poor  pioneers,  who  had  very  slowly  collected  their  small 
capital  of  one  pound  each,  opened  a  store  to  supply  themselves  with  pro- 
visions, having  only  four  articles  to  sell — flour,  butter,  sugar  and  oatmeal. 
They  limited  interest  on  shares  to  five  per  cent,  and  divided  profits  among 
members  in  proportion  to  their  purchases,  a  system  which  proved  highly 


5g2  £  VOL  UTION  IN  1ND  USTR  Y 

advantageous.  From  the  first  this  organization  was  successful,  and  by 
1857  it  had  1,850  members,  a  capital  of  £i  5,000,  and  annual  sales  of  ,£80,000. 
Since  then  its  growth  has  continued  rapid,  and  it  is  now  in  a  high  state  of 
prosperity. 

There  were  co-operative  societies  in  Great  Britain  long  before  the  date 
of  this,  and  many  have  been  started  since,  nearly  all  of  them  being  in  the 
form  of  co-operative  stores,  of  which  the  Army  and  Navy  Stores  are  among 
the  most  flourishing.  There  are  now  in  that  country  probably  over  1,500 
of  these  associations,  with  a  million  of  members,  a  capital  of  more  than 
^"10,000,000,  and  profits  of  over  ,£3, 000,000  annually.  In  1864  there  was 
founded  at  Manchester  a  Wholesale  Society  to  supply  goods  to  these  stores, 
and  a  second  at  Glasgow  in  1869 — the  two  being  now  practically  one  institu- 
tion. This  society  purchases  and  forwards  goods,  and  owns  a  number  of 
steamships  of  its  own,  which  traffic  with  cities  on  the  continent.  Its  manu- 
facturing industries  are  also  large,  including  boot  and  shoe  factories  at 
Leicester,  soap  works  at  Durham,  woolen-cloth  mills  at  Batley,  and  other 
factories  elsewhere.  There  are  in  addition  mills  and  factories  carried  on 
by  retail  societies,  the  annual  production  by  these  associations  being 
probably  considerably  over  ,£5,000,000.  It  will  be  perceived  from  the 
above  statement  that  the  workmen's  co-operative  enterprises  in  Great 
Britain  comprise  one  of  the  important  institutions  of  the  country,  one  that 
has  become  firmly  established  during  the  latter  half  of  the  nineteenth 
century,  and  may  grow  enormously  in  importance  during  the  twentieth.  It 
is  likely  to  play  a  prominent  part  in  the  solution  of  the  labor  question. 

In  no  other  country  has  this  form  of  association  flourished.  In  France 
profit-sharing  has  made  a  much  greater  progress,  and  ordinary  co-operation 
has  met  with  slight  success.  In  Germany  and  Austria  co-operation  has 
r  f  nin  ta^-en  t^ie  f°rm  °f  people's  banks.  These  originated  in  1849 
Europe  and  at  the  little  town  of  Delitzsch,  in  Saxony,  and  have  flourished 
the  United  greatly,  there  being  several  thousand  societies  in  the  German 
states,  with  probably  two  million  members  and  a  very  large 
business.  There  are  also  in  Germany  a  considerable  number  of  productive 
associations  and  co-operative  dairies,  while  the  latter  have  greatly  flourished 
in  Denmark.  In  Italy  the  people's  banks  have  made  marked  progress,  and 
there  are  .several  hundred  co-operative  dairies,  bakeries  and  other  en- 
terprises. 

Co-operation  has  made  no  decided  progress  in  the  United  States,  it 
being  most  developed  in  New  England,  where  it  takes  the  form  of  associa- 
tions of  fishermen,  of  creameries  and  banks.  In  Philadelphia  co-operative 
building  societies  have  provided  workmen  with  more  than  100,000  homes. 


E  VOL  UTION  IN  INDUSTR  Y  563 

The  co-operative  store  has  not  flourished,  and  associated  manufacture  has 
made  little  progress,  though  profit-sharing  has  been  introduced  into  many 
large  stores  and  factories. 

Such  is  the  status  of  the  experimental  development  in  associated 
manufacturing  and  distributive  enterprise.  The  theoretical  phase  of  this 
question  has  gone  much  further,  and  has  given  rise  to  an  extensive  popular 
movement  whose  final  outcome  it  is  not  easy  to  predict.  This  is  really,  in 
its  way,  an  extension  of  the  co-operative  idea,  being  an  attempt  to  make 
co-operation  national,  the  entire  nation  becoming  one  great  co-operative 
association,  and  the  functions  of  government  being  extended  to  cover 
production  and  distribution  of  the  necessaries  of  life,  in  addition  to  its 
present  duties.  This  theory  is  most  commonly  known  as  The  Theories  of 
Socialism,  though  also  entitled  Nationalism  and  Collect-  Socialism  and 
ivism.  Its  main  purpose  is  industrial  reform,  but  it  seeks  to  Anarchism 
produce  by  political  means  what  the  trade  union  has  attempted  to  do  by 
non-political  agitation.  An  opposite  doctrine,  which  has  many  adherents,  is 
known  as  Anarchism,  whose  platform  contemplates  the  overthrow  of  existing 
institutions  and  the  rebuilding  of  society  from  its  elements  upon  the  basis  of 
local  grouping.  This  doctrine  has  attracted  to  itself  much  of  the  ignorant 
and  violent  element  of  the  European  populations,  and  has  been  seriously 
discredited  by  the  outrages  committed  by  its  members.  Prominent  examples 
of  these  were  the  massacre  of  the  police  in  Chicago,  already  mentioned,  the 
excesses  of  the  Commune  in  Paris,  and  the  acts  of  violence  of  the  Russian 
Nihilists.  The  theory  itself  is  philosophical,  even  if  impracticable,  and  has 
been  advocated  by  a  number  of  able  men  who  cannot  be  charged  with  its 
excesses. 

Returning  to  the  doctrines  of  Socialism,  it  may  be  said  that  it  was 
preceded  by  the  conception  of  Communism,  or  equal  distribution  of  the 
proceeds  of  labor  among  the  members  of  a  community.  This  has  long 
since  passed  from  the  stage  of  belief  to  that  of  experiment, 
many  Communistic  societies  having  been  founded  in  both 
ancient  and  modern  times.  The  Essenes,  prominent  in  Pales- 
tine in  the  time  of  Christ,  were  one  of  the  ancient  examples.  In  modern 
times  the  United  States  has  been  a  favorite  field  for  the  founding  of  Com- 
munistic societies,  probably  from  the  reason  that  they  were  less  likely  to 
come  into  conflict  with  existing  institutions  than  in  Europe. 

The  best  known  of  those  societies  of  a  religious  character  comprise  the 
Dunkers,  founded  at  Ephrata,  Pennsylvania,  in  1713  ;  the  Harmony  Society, 
established  in  1824,  and  still  in  existence  at  Economy,  near  Pittsburg ;  the 
Separatist  Community,  established  at  Zoar,  Ohio,  in  1817;  the  Shakers, 


564  EVOLUTION  IN  INDUSTRY 

first  organized  at  Watervliet,  N.  Y.,  in  1774  ;  and  the  Perfectionists,  founded 
by  John  H.  Noyes,  at  Putney,  Vermont,  in  1837.  Several  others,  less  well 
known,  might  be  named,  but  it  must  be  said  that  the  persistence  of  several 
of  these  organizations  has  been  mainly  due  to  the  religious  enthusiasm  of 
their  members,  and  is  in  no  sense  a  proof  of  the  economic  correctness  of  their 
principle.  Many  of  them  require  celibacy  of  their  members,  while  the  Per- 
fectionist Society  practiced  free  love  until  broken  up  by  the  strong  disap- 
proval of  the  community. 

In  addition  to  these  religious  experiments  in  Communism,  a  number 
of  secular  communistic  societies  have  been  founded  in  this  country.      Promi- 
nent among  these  was  that  established  by  Robert  Owen,  in   1824,  at  New 
Secular  Com-       Harmony,   Indiana.      Every  effort  was  made  to  promote  the 
munistic  success  of  this  enterprise,  and  ten  other  communities  on  the 

Experiments  same  principle  were  organized  elsewhere,  but  they  all  failed 
in  a  few  years,  and  the  Owenite  movement  came  to  an  end  in  this  country 
by  1832. 

A  second  example  was  the  celebrated  Brook  Farm  enterprise,  first  sug- 
gested by  Dr.  Channing,  and  founded  at  West  Roxbury,  Mass.,  in  1841. 
It  included  the  most  remarkable  group  of  men  and  women  ever  embraced 
in  such  an  undertaking,  among  its  members  being  Emerson,  Hawthorne, 
Dana,  Ripley,  Alcott,  and  other  well  known  literary  men.  Its  business  man- 
agement was  anything  but  practical,  and  it  came  to  an  end  in  1847.  The 
form  of  community  suggested  by  Fourier,  the  French  theorist,  was  abun- 
dantly tried  in  the  United  States,  where  thirty-three  communities  or 
''phalanxes"  were  founded  in  the  years  1842-53.  They  had  all  failed 
by  1855. 

The  result  of  these  efforts  to  establish  societies  where  everything  shall 
be  in  common  between  the  members,  of  which  hundreds  have  been  founded 
and  none  persisted  for  more  than  a  few  years,  except  where  sustained  by 
religious  fanaticism,  does  not  speak  well  for  the  practical  nature  of  com- 
munism. The  mass  of  the  people  have  always  kept  away  from  it,  and  its 
abrogation  of  the  principle  of  personal  reward  for  personal  effort  seems 
likely  to  prevent  its,  ever  becoming  successful. 

Socialism  was  originally  similar"  to  Communism,  but  as  now  under- 
stood and  advocated  differs  essentially  from  it,  since  the  principle  of 
equal  division  of  property  or  products  is  no  longer  maintained. 
Nationalism,  or  the  ownership  of  all  productive  property  and 
all  manufactures  and  their  products  by  the  nation,  with  the 
complete  distribution  of  profits  among  the  people,  on  the  basis  of  the  value 
to  the  community  of  the  labor  or  service  of  each  person,  is  the  existing 


EVOLUTION  IN  INDUSTRY  565 

form  of  Socialism.  Originated  and  developed  within  the  nineteenth  cen- 
tury, it  has  now  become  one  of  the  prominent  social  and  political  move, 
ments  of  the  age,  and  some  brief  description  of  it  is  here  in  order. 

France  is  the  birth  place  of  Socialism  in  its  primary  form.  Two  writers, 
Mably  and  Morelly,  advanced  a  scheme  for  a  communistic  reorganization  of 
society  about  the  middle  of  the  eighteenth  century,  and  in  1796  a  commun- 
istic conspirary  to  revolutionize  the  government,  organized  by  a  man  named 
Babeuf,  at  the  head  of  a  society  called  the  Equals,  was  discovered  and  sup- 
pressed. Later  arose  Robert  Owen  in  England,  with  his  communistic 
scheme,  and  St.  Simon  and  Fourier  in  Fance,  whose  plans  were  only  in 
part  communistic.  A  more  properly  Socialistic  movement  was  attempted 
by  Louis  Blanc  in  Paris  during  the  revolution  of  1848,  when  national  work- 
shops for  the  industrial  classes  of  France  were  established.  In  Paris  150,- 
ooo  workmen  were  employed  in  these  shops,  but  they  were  closed  after  a 
brief  trial.  Their  failure,  it  is  claimed,  was  largely  the  result  of  bad  man- 
agement. Of  recent  English  Socialistic  movements  may  be  named  that  of 
Maurice  and  Kingsley,  the  originators  of  Christian  Socialism,  which  con- 
tinues to  exercise  an  important  influence. 

After  1850  the  socialistic  movement  temporarily  decHned  in  France 
and  Great  Britain,  but  it  gained  a  great  impetus  in  Germany,  under  the 
teachings  "of  certain  able  and  skillful  advocates.  German  Socialism  first 
became  active  in  1863,  through  the  efforts  of  Ferdinand  Lasalle,  though  it 
had  earlier  supporters.  He  proposed  to  establish  a  German 
workman's  republic,  with  himself  as  president  ;  but  ended  his 
career  in  the  following  year,  being  killed  in  a  duel.  After 
his  death  his  system  of  "social  democracy"  fell  under  the  control  of  the 
notable  Karl  Marx,  a  writer  of  original  genius,  to  whom  Socialism  as  it 
exists  to-day  is  largely  due.  The  International  Association  of  Workingmen, 
as  reorganized  by  him  in  1864,  changed  its  purpose  from  an  industrial  to  a 
political  one,  and  soon  became  a  threatening  compound  of  dangerous 
elements.  It  was  socialistic  in  aim,  having,  below  its  declared  purpose  of 
the  protection  and  emancipation  of  the  working  classes,  schemes  for  the 
abolition  of  the  wages  system,  the  state  control  of  all  property,  and  the 
grading  of  compensation  for  labor  on  the  basis  of  time  occupied,  instead  of 
on  the  more  logical  basis  of  ability  and  industry  shown  and  value  of 
product. 

Karl  Marx's  famous  work  "Capital,"  is  the  ablest  and  most  logical 
exposition  of  the  socialistic  theory  yet  produced,  and  has  exerted  a  power- 
ful influence  on  recent  thought.  It  set  in  motion  a  great  political  and 
social  movement  which  has  grown  with  extraordinary  rapidity,  in  spite  of 


566  E  VOL  UTION  IN  IND USTR  Y 

repressive  laws  against  it,  and  has  given  rise  to  a  large  number  of  volumes 
dealing  with  the  subject,  some  of  which  have  had  a  phenom- 

The  Literature  j       j         Th      popuiar  little  volume  entitled  "  Merrie  Eng- 

of  Socialism  f 

land  is  said  to  have  sold  to  the  number  ot  considerably 
more  than  a  million  copies,  while  Bellamy's  "  Looking  Backward,"  which 
advocates  a  communistic  organization  of  society,  has  had  a  sale  of  several 
hundred  thousands. 

In  recent  years  Socialism  has  spread  upward  from  the  working  classes 
and  gained  many  advocates  among  the  leaders  of  thought.  It  has  had  a  con- 
siderable development  in  all  western  Europe,  and  particularly  in  Germany,  in 
which  country  the  Socialists  form  a  powerful  political  party,  which  as  early 
as  1887  polled  eleven  per  cent,  of  the  total  vote,  and  gained  a  considerable 
membership  in  the  Reichstag.  By  1890  its  vote  had  so  largely  increased 
that  liberalism  obtained  a  majority  in  the  Reichstag.  At  the  end  of  the 

century  the  Social  Democrat  party  had  ^6  members  in  the 
Growth  of  the  '* 

Socialist  Reichstag   as   contrasted   with    54  members   of    the    German 

Party  in  Conservatives.      The    remainder    of    the   396    members    were 

divided  among  a  number  of  parties,   the   Clericals  or   Centre 

being  the  strongest,  with  104  members.     As  will  be  seen  from  these  figures, 

Socialism  has  made  a  remarkable  advance  in  that  country,  having  within 

less  than  forty  years  become  a  power  in  Parliament.     The  time  may  come 

in  the  near  future  when  it  will  be  the  controlling  party  in  legislature  and 

government. 

In  the  United  States  Socialism  has  grown  with  less  rapidity,  yet  within 
recent  years  it  has  sprung  into  political  importance  in  the  rapid  growth  of 
the  Populist  party,  organized  in  1892.  This  new  organization  gained  five 
senators  and  eleven  representatives  in  Congress  in  the  year  of  its 
origin.  In  1896,  while  its  success  was  no  greater,  it  had  the  striking  effect 
of  gaining  the  adhesion  of  the  Democratic  party,  not  only  to  the  Free  Silver 
plank  in  its  platform,  but  to  some  of  its  more  socialistic  features.  There  are 
The  Populist  probably  very  many  citizens  of  this  country  of  strongly  social- 
Party  in  the  istic  views  who  are  opposed  to  the  radical  measures  advocated 
United  states  by  the  popui}sts>  anc}  the  real  strength  of  Socialism  in  the 
United  States  may  be  much  greater  than  is  commonly  supposed.  It  is  shown 
in  other  directions  than  that  of  party  affiliation,  and  at  the  end  of  the 
century  was  particularly  indicated  in  the  movement  for  the  municipal 
ownership  of  street  railways,  gas  works,  and  other  forms  of  what  are  known 
as  public  utilities.  This  movement  has  gone  farther  in  Europe  than  in  this 
country,  several  nations  owning  their  railway  and  telegraph  plants,  while 
municipal  control  of  street  railways  and  other  public  utilities  is  becoming 


E  VOL  UTION  IN  IND  USTR  Y  567 

general.  In  short,  it  would  be  difficult  to  point  to  a  popular  movement  in 
the  history  of  the  world  that  has  made  a  more  rapid  and  substantial  advance 
than  has  Socialism  within  the  past  forty  years. 

As  the  nineteenth   century  approached  its  end  a  new   element  in  the 
economic  situation,  which  had  been  displaying  itself  in  some  measure  for  a 
considerable  number  of  years,  suddenly  assumed  a  striking  prominence  in 
the  United   States,   and   remarkably  transformed    the   industrial    situation. 
This  was  the  element  of  the  combination  of  distributive  and   The  Develop. 
manufacturing  enterprises,  shown    at   first    in   the  growth  of      mentofthe 
the    department    stores    and    the    pooling    of    manufacturing 
interests,  and   later  in   the    formation   of    trusts    and  monopolies,  powerful 
corporations  of  industrial  interests,  which  assumed  gigantic  proportions  in 
1898  and  the  succeeding  years. 

Several  of  these  great  organizations,  absorbing  all  the  factories  or 
plants  of  the  special  trades  concerned  into  single  vast  corporations,  have 
been  in  existence  for  years.  Most  prominent  of  these  are  the  Sugar  Trust 
and  the  Standard  Oil  Company,  which  have  eliminated  the  element  of  com- 
petition from  those  industries  and  accumulated  their  profits  in  the  hands  of 
a  few  great  capitalists. 

The  complete  control  of  important  productive  interests  gained  by  these 
groups  of  capitalists  has  instigated  those  connected  with  other  lines  of  pro- 
duction to  similar  methods,  and  the  formation  of  trusts  has  gone  on  at  an 
accelerating  ratio,  until  all  the  great  and  many  of  the  minor  industries  of 
the  country  have  formed  trust  organizations,  while  a  large  number  of  estab- 
lishments have  been  closed,  and  thousands  of  workmen  and  other  employees 
dismissed. 

The  result  of  all  this  has  been  to  produce  a  state  of  affairs  in  which 
competition,  so  long  considered  the  life  of  trade,  is  practically  eliminated 
from  many  branches  of  industry,  while  the  opportunities  for 

j.    ,V     t  •  i-    i     i  I  •        r  Probable  Effect 

individual  enterprise,  which  have  been  active  tor  so  many  cen-      of  Trusts 

turies,  have  in  great  part  vanished.     An  economic  situation 
seems  at  hand  in  which  the  mass  of  the  community  will  be  obliged  to  assume 
the  position  of  employees,  the  class  of  employers  being  reduced  to  a  few 
very  rich  men,  absorbing  the  profits  of  industry  and  holding  the  remainder 
of  the  community  in  a  condition  of  galling  servitude. 

Such  an  undesirable  condition  of  industrial  affairs  as  is  here  threatened 
has  naturally  aroused  a  strong  feeling  of  opposition,  and  the  forces  of  the 
community  are  being  marshalled  to  prevent  such  a  radical  revolution  in 
industry.  Just  how  the  brake  is  to  be  applied  is  not  clear.  It  is  not  easy 
to  prevent  capital  from  pooling  its  forces,  and  legislation  may  fail  to  find  a 


568  E  VOL  UTION  IN  IND  USTR  Y 

remedy  which  will  reach  the  root  of  the  disease.  Yet  a  cure  must  come,  in 
one  way  or  the  other — the  trust  movement  being  either  reversed  or  carried 
forward  to  its  logical  conclusion.  It  is  being  widely  recognized  and  acknow- 
ledged, even  by  some  of  the  trust  potentates  themselves,  that  the  movement 
thus  inaugurated  is  likely  to  hasten  the  advent  of  socialistic  institutions. 
To  What  the  The  abolition  of  individual  enterprise  under  the  trust  must 
Trust  Must  eventually  become  almost  as  extreme  as  it  would  be  in  a 

socialistic  community,  and  if  the  trust  movement  continues  the 
principal  objection  to  socialism  will  be  removed.  It  must  be  evident  to  all 
that  the  tyranny  of  a  group  of  irresponsible  and  grasping  capitalists,  ambi- 
tious to  obtain  enormous  wealth,  will  be  much  greater  than  that  of  officials 
chosen  as  the  servants  of  the  people,  and  subject  to  removal  at  their  will, 
can  ever  become. 

The  Roman  despot  wished  that  all  the  Roman  people  had  but  one 
neck,  that  he  might  cut  it  off  with  a  single  blow.  Capital  is  in  a  measure 
reducing  itself  to  this  condition,  and  the  people  may  in  time  cut  off 
its  head  in  a  similar  manner.  It  is  easier  to  deal  with  the  few  than  with 
the  many,  and  the  relation  into  which  capital  and  labor  has  now  come 
can  have,  sooner  or  later,  only  one  or  the  other  of  two  endings.  As 
above  said,  the  evolution  now  in  operation  must  go  forward  or  go  back- 
ward ;  go  backward  until  the  former  state  of  affairs  is  regained,  or  go 
forward  until  industrial  slavery  grows  complete,  in  which  case  the  people 
will,  in  the  end,  inevitably  rebel.  It  is  impossible  for  such  a  movement  to 
stop  half  way,  one  result  or  the- other  must  inevitably  come,  either  a  return  to 
individualism  or  a  progress  to  collectivism.  Which  it  shall  be  depends  upon 
the  people  themselves.  The  power  is  in  their  hands  the  moment  they  elect 

to  cast  aside  their  differences    and  act  in  concert,  and  the  pres- 

An  Industrial  ,  ,  .,,,...,  ,  . 

Revolution        ence  of  a  great  danger  or  an  intolerable  situation  is  the  one  thing 

to  bring  them  to  this  common  action.  In  such  a  case  it  will 
rest  with  themselves  which  status  of  industry  they  prefer,  the  old  state  of 
individualism  and  competition  or  a  new  state  of  collectivism  and  industrial 
alliance.  Though  it  is  but  dimly  recognized,  the  world  of  industry  is  in  the 
throes  of  a  revolution,  the  final  result  of  nineteenth  century  development, 
and  it  must  be  left  for  the  twentieth  century  to  decide  what  the  outcome  of 
this  revolution  is  to  be. 


CHAPTER    XXXIX 

Charles  Darwin  and  the  Development  of  Science 


by  no  means  belongs  to  the  nineteenth  century.  It  has  been 
extant  upon  the  earth  ever  since  man  began  to  observe  and  consider 
the  marvels  of  the  universe.  We  can  trace  it  back  to  an  age  possibly 
ten  thousand  years  remote,  when  men  began  to  watch  and  record  the  move- 
ments of  the  stars  in  the  heavens  above  the  broad  Babylonian  plain.  It 
grew  active  among  the  Greeks  of  Alexandria  in  that  too  brief 
period  before  the  hand  of  war  checked  for  centuries  the  pro-  Scientific  Dis- 
gress  of  mankind.  It  rose  again  in  Europe  during  the  medi-  coveryinthe 
aeval  period,  and  became  active  during  the  later  centuries  of 
this  period.  In  the  centuries  immediately  preceding  the  nineteenth  num- 
bers of  great  scientists  arose,  and  many  highly  important  discoveries  were 
made,  while  theoretical  science  achieved  a  remarkable  progress,  its  ranks 
being  adorned  by  such  names  as  those  of  Copernicus,  Kepler,  Galileo,  New- 
ton, and  various  others  of  world-wide  fame  that  might  be  given.  Thus  at 
the  dawn  of  the  nineteenth  century  there  existed  a  great  groundwork  of 
scientific  facts  and  theories  upon  which  to  build  the  massive  future  edifice. 

This  building  has  been  going  on  with  extraordinary  rapidity  during  the 
present  century,  and  to-day  our  knowledge   of  the   facts  of  science  is   im- 
mensely greater  than  that  of  our  predecessors  of  a  century  ago  ;  while  of  the 
views  entertained  and  theories  promulgated  previous  to  1800,    ScJentific  Acti. 
the   great  sum   have   been  thrown  overboard  and  replaced    by      vityofthe 
others  founded  upon  a  much  wider  and  deeper  knowledge  of      Nineteenth 
facts. 

New  and  important  theoretical  views  of  science  have  been  reached  in 
all  departments.  Recent  chemistry,  for  instance,  is  a  very  different  thing 
from  the  chemistry  of  a  century  ago.  Geology  has  been  largely  trans- 
formed within  the  century.  Heat,  once  supposed  to  be  a  substance,  is  now 
known  to  be  a  motion  ;  light,  formerly  thought  to  be  a  direct  motion  of 
particles,  is  now  believed  to  be  a  wave  motion  ;  new  and  important  concep- 
tions have  been  reached  concerning  electricity  and  magnetism  ;  and  our 
knowledge  of.  the  various  sciences  that  have  to  do  with  the  world  of  life  is 
extraordinarily  advanced.  As  for  the  practical  applications  of  science,  it 

569 


570  CHARLES  DARWIN  AND  DEVELOPMENT  OF  SCIENCE 

may  suffice  to  present  the  startling  fact  that  the  substance  of  the  atmos- 
phere, scarcely  known  a  century  ago,  can  now  be  reduced  to  a  liquid  and 
carried  about  like  water  in  a  bucket. 

In  view  of  the  facts  here  briefly  stated  it  might  almost  be  said  that 
science,  as  it  exists  to-day,  is  a  result  of  nineteenth  century  thought  and 
observation  ;  since  that  of  the  past  was  largely  theoretical  and  the  bulk  of 
its  theories  have  been  set  aside,  while  the  scientific  observations  of  former 
times  were  but  a  drop  in  the  bucket  as  compared  with  the  vast  multitude 
of  those  of  the  past  hundred  years.  As  regards  the  utilization  of  scientific 
facts,  their  application  to  the  benefit  of  mankind,  this  is  almost  solely  the 
work  of  the  century  under  review,  and  in  no  direction  has  invention  pro- 
duced more  wonderful  and  useful  results. 

Alfred  Russell  Wallace,  one  of  the  most  distinguished  scientists  of 
recent  times,  in  his  work  entitled  "The  Wonderful  Century,"  has  made  a 
Wallace's  careful  inventory  of  the  discoveries  and  inventions  to  which 

"Wonderful  the  progress  of  mankind  is  mainly  due,  and  he  divides  them 
Century"  jnto  twQ  groUpS)  tjie  fjrst  embracing  all  the  epoch-making 
discoveries  achieved  by  men  previous  to  the  present  century,  and  the  second 
taking  in  the  steps  of  progress  of  equal  importance  which  have  been  made 
in  the  nineteenth  century.  In  the  first  list  he  finds  only  fifteen  items  of 
the  highest  rank,  and  the  claims  of  some  even  of  these  to  a  separate  place 
are  not  beyond  question,  since  they  may  not  really  be  of  epoch-making  char- 
acter. He  puts  first  in  the  list  the  following,  viz.  :  Alphabetic  writing  and 
the  Arabic  notation,  which  have  always  been  powerful  engines  of  knowledge 
and  discovery.  Their  inventors  are  unknown,  lost  in  the  dim  twilight  of 
prehistoric  times.  As  the  third  great  discovery  of  ancient  times  he  names 
the  development  of  geometry.  Coming  after  a  vast  interval  to  the  four- 
teenth century  A.  D.,  we  find  the  mariner's  compass,  and  in  the  fifteenth 
the  printing  press,  both  of  which  beyond  question  are  of  the  same  character 
and  rank  as  alphabetic  writing.  From  the  sixteenth  century  we  get  no 
physical  invention  or  discovery  of  leading  importance,  but  it  witnessed  an 
amazing  movement  of  the  human  mind,  which  in  good  time  gave  rise  to  the 
Epoch-Making  great  catalogue  of  advances  of  the  seventeenth  century.  To 
Discoveries  of  this  he  credits  the  invention  of  the  telescope,  and,  though  not 
Past  Times  Qf  equaj  rank,  the  barometer  and  thermometer  (which  he 
classes  as  one  discovery),  and  in  other  fields  the  discovery  of  the  differential 
calculus,  of  gravitation,  of  the  laws  of  planetary  motion,  of  the  circulation 
of  the  blood,  and  the  measurement  of  the  velocity  of  light.  To  the  eight- 
eenth century  he  refers  the  more  important  of  tfie  earlier  steps  in  the  evolu- 
tion of  the  steam  engine  and  the  foundation  of  both  modern  chemistry 


DARWIN  AND  DEVELOPMENT  OF  SCIENCE  57* 

and  electrical  science.  This  completes  the  list.  To  the  above  many  would 
add  Jenner's  discovery  of  vaccination  and  probably  several  others.  Each 
writer,  in  making  up  such  a  list,  would  be  governed  in  a  measure  by  his 
personal  range  of  studies,  but  no  one  would  be  likely  to  deviate  widely  from 
the  above  list. 

Now  what  has  been  the  record  since  1800?  How  does  the  nineteenth 
cetury  compare  with  its  predecessors?  In  Wallace's  view  it 

i  j  J  •         •£  j    j-        Great  Dis- 

is  not  to  be  compared,  as  regards  scientific  progress  and  dis-      COVeries  of 
covery,  with  any  single  century,  but  with  all  past  time.      In       the  Nine- 
fact,  it  far  outstrips  the  entire  progress  of  mankind  in  the  ages      ^^  Cen" 
preceding  1800. 

Estimating  on  the  same  basis  as  that  which  he  previously  adopted, 
Wallace  finds  twenty-four  discoveries  and  inventions  of  the  first  class  that 
have  had  their  origin  in  the  nineteenth  century,  against  the  fifteen  enumer- 
ated from  all  previous  time. 

Of  the  same  rank  with  Newton's  theory  of  gravitation,  which  comes 
from  the  seventeenth  century,  stands  out  the  doctrine  of  the  correlation  and 
conservation  of  forces,  one  of  the  widest  and  most  far  reaching  general- 
izations that  the  mind  of  man  has  yet  reached.  Against  Kepler's  laws  of 
planetary  motions  from  the  seventeenth  century  we  can  set  the  nebular 
theory  of  the  nineteenth.  The  telescope  of  the  seventeenth  is  matched  by 
the  spectroscope  of  the  nineteenth.  If  the  first  reveals  to  us  myriads  of 
suns,  otherwise  unseen,  scattered  through  the  illimitable  fields  of  space,  the 
second  tells  us  what  substances  compose  these  suns  and  maintain  their 
distant  fires,  and,  most  wonderful  of  all,  the  direction  and  the  rate  in  which 
each  is  moving.  Harvey's  immortal  discovery  of  the  seventeenth  century 
finds  a  full  equivalent  in  the  germ  theory  of  disease  of  the  nineteenth. 
The  mariner's  compass  of  the  fourteenth  century  easily  yields  first 
place  to  the  electric  telegraph  of  the  nineteenth,  while  the  barometer  and 
thermometer  of  the  seventeenth  century  are  certainly  less  wonderful, 
though  perhaps  not  less  serviceable,  than  the  telephone  and  phonograph 
and  the  Rontgen  rays  of  our  own  day. 

We  may  more  briefly  enumerate  the  remaining  discoveries  cited  by 
Wallace,   partly,   as  will   be  perceived,   mechanical,   but    mainly  results    of 
scientific  research.     Early  in  the  century  came  the  inestima-   Usefuland 
ble  inventions  of   the  railway  engine  and  the  steamboat,  and      scientific 
somewhat  later  the  minor  but  highly  useful  discoveries  of  the 
lucifer  match  and  of   gas  illumination.     These  were  quickly 
followed  by  the  wonderful  discovery  of  photography,  than  which  few  things 
have  added  more  to  the  enjoyment  of  man.     Equally  important  in  relation 


572  CHARLES  DARWIN  AND  DEVELOPMENT  OF  SCIENCE 

to.  his  relief  from  suffering  are  the  remarkable  discoveries  of  anaesthetics 
and  the  antiseptic  method  in  surgery.  Another  of  the  great  discoveries 
of  the  age  is  that  of  the  electric  light,  with  its  remarkably  rapid  develop- 
ment and  utilization. 

More  purely  scientific  in  character  are  Mendeljeff's  discovery  of  the 
periodic  law  in  chemistry,  the  molecular  theory  of  matter,  the  direct 
measurement  of  the  velocity  of  light,  and  the  remarkable  utility  of  floating 
dust  in  meteorology.  The  list  concludes  with  the  geological  theory  of  the 
glacial  age,  the  discovery  of  the  great  antiquity  of  man,  the  cell  theory  and 
the  doctrines  of  embryological  development,  and  last,  but,  in  pure  science, 
perhaps  the  greatest,  Darwin's  famous  theory  of  organic  evolution — devel- 
oped by  Spencer  into  universal  evolution. 

It  is  quite  possible  that  other  nineteenth  century  scientists  would  be 
tempted  to  expand  this  list,  and  perhaps  add  considerably  to  Wallace's 
twenty-four  epoch-making  discoveries.  Indeed,  since  his  book  was  written, 
a  twenty-fifth  has  arisen,  in  the  discovery  of  wireless  telegraphy,  the 
scientific  marvel  of  the  end  of  the  century,  too  young  as  yet  for  its  vast 
possibilities  to  be  perceived.  We  might  also  mention  the  electric  motor 
and  liquid  air  as  of  equal  importance  with  some  of  those  enumerated. 

An    interesting    review    of    the    advances  made  in  science  during  the 

nineteenth  century  was    offered  by  Sir   Michael  Foster,   President  of   the 

British  Association  in  its   1899  meeting,  from  which  we  may  quote.      He 

first  touched  upon  chemistry.     The  ancients,  he  said,  thought  that  but  four 

Foster's  Views    elements  existed — fire,  air,  earth,  and  water.      Anything  like  a 

on  Recent         correct  notion  of  the  composition   of  matter  dates  from  the 

latter  part  of    the    eighteenth  century,    when    Priestley   and 

Lavoisier  revealed  to  the  world  the  nature  of  oxygen,  and   thus  led  to  a 

long  series  of  fruitful  discoveries. 

The  whole  history  of  electricity  as  a  servant  of  man  is  confined  to  the 
last  sixty  or  seventy  years,  and  really  springs  from  Volta's  invention  of  the 
galvanic  battery.  Frictional  electricity  had  long  been  known,  but  nothing 
beyond  curious  laboratory  experiments  were  conducted  with  it.  The  investi- 
gations and  discoveries  of  Oersted  and  Faraday,  which  made  possible  the 
telegraph,  dynamo,  trolley  car  and  telephone,  followed  Volta's  discovery  of 
the  means  of  producing  a  steady  current  of  electricity — first  announced 
in  1709. 

Geology,  too,  he  states  to  be  a  new  born  science.  Although  numerous 
ingenious  theories  were  entertained  in  regard  to  the  origin  and  significance 
of  the  strata  rock,  it  was  only  at  the  close  of  the  eighteenth  century  that  men 
began  to  recognize  that  the  earth's  crust,  with  its  various  layers  of  rock,  was 


CHARLES  DARWIN  AND  DEVELOPMENT  OE  SCIENCE  573 

a  vast  book  of  history,  each  leaf  of  which  told  of  periods  of  thousands  or 
millions  of  years.  The  slow  processes  of  formation,  and  the  embedding  of 
the  remains  of  the  animal  and  vegetable  life  of  those  ancient  .times,  were 
only  interpreted  aright  after  Hutton,  Playfair  and  Cuvier  had  wrestled  with 
the  problem. 

With  these  interesting  views  of  prominent  scientists,  we  may  proceed  to 
a  more  detailed  consideration  of  the  scientific  triumphs  of  the  century.     To 
present  anything  other  than  the  headlights  of  its  progress,  in  the  space  at 
our  command,  would  be  impossible,  in  view  of  the  extraordinary  accumula- 
tion of  facts  made  by  its  many  thousands  of  observers,  and  the  multitude  of 
generalizations,  of    the    most  varied  character,  offered  by  the 
thinkers    in    the    domain  of    science.      These    generalizations    Headllshts  of 
vary  in  importance  as  much  as  they  do  in  character.      Many  of 
them  are  evidently  temporary  only,  and  must  fall  before  the  future  progress 
of  discovery  ;  others  are  founded  upon  such  a  multitude  of  significant  facts, 
and  are  of  such  inherent  probability,  that  they  seem  likely  to  be  as  permanent 
as  the  theories  of  Galileo,  Kepler,  Newton,  and  others  of  the  older  worthies. 

Beginning  with  astronomy,  the  oldest  and  noblest  of  the  sciences,  we 
could  record  a  vast  number  of  minor  discoveries,  but  shall  confine  ourselves 
to  the  major  ones.  Progress  in  astronomy  has  kept  in  close  pace  with 
development  in  instruments.  The  telescope  of  the  end  of  the  century,  for 
instance,  has  enormously  greater  space-penetrating  and  star-defining  powers 
than  that  used  at  the  beginning,  and  has  added  extraordinarily  to  our 
knowledge  of  the  number  of  stars,  the  character  of  their  groupings,  and 
the  constitution  of  solar  orbs  and  nebulae.  These  results  have  been  greatly 
addded  to  by  the  use  of  the  camera  in  astronomy,  the  photo- 
graph revealing  stellar  secrets  which  could  never  have  been 
learned  by  the  aid  of  the  telescope  alone.  This  has  also  the 
great  advantage  of  placing  on  record  the  positions  of  the  stars  at  any  fixed 
moment,  and  thus  rendering  comparatively  easy  the  detection  of  motions 
among  them. 

But  it   is  to  a  new  instrument  of   research,  the  spectroscope,  that  we 
owe  our  most  interesting  knowledge  of  the  stars.     This  wonderful  instru- 
ment enables  us  to  analyze  the  ray  of  light  itself,  to  study  the  many  lines  by 
which  the  vari-colored  spectrum  is  crossed  and  discover  to  what  substances 
certain  groups  of  lines  are  due.     From  studying  with  this  instru-   Reve|atlons  of 
ment  the  substances  which  compose  the  earth,  science  has  taken      the  Spectro- 
to  studying  the  stars,  and  has  found  that  not  only  our  sun,      8COpe 
but  suns  whose  distance  is  almost  beyond  the  grasp   of  thought,  are  made 
up  largely  of  chemical  substances  similar  to  those  that  exist  in  the  earth. 


574  CtfARLES  DARWIN  AND  DEVELOPMENT  Of  S 

A  second  result  of  the  use  of  this  instrument  has  been  to  prove  that  there 
are  true  nebulae  in  the  heavens,  masses  of  star  dust  or  vapor  not 
yet  gathered  into  orbs,  and  that  there  are  dark  suns,  great  invisible  orbs, 
which  have  cooled  until  they  have  ceased  to  give  off  light.  A  third  result 
is  the  power  of  tracing  the  motions  of  stars  which  are  passing  in  a 
direct  line  to  or  from  the  earth.  By  this  means  it  has  been  found  that 
many  of  the  double  or  multiple  stars  are  revolving  around  each  other.  A 
late  discovery  in  this  direction,  made  in  1899,  ls  t^lat  t^e  Polar  star,  which 
appears  single  in  the  most  powerful  telescope,  is  really  made  up  of  three 
stars,  two  of  which  revolve  round  each  other  every  four  hours,  while  the  two 
circle  round  a  more  distant  companion. 

Late  astronomy  has  revealed  to  us  many  marvels  of  the  solar  system. 
Before  the  nineteenth  century  it  was  not  known  that  any  planetary  bodies 
existed  between  Mars  and  Jupiter.    On  the  first  day  of  the  century — January 
I,  1801 — Ceres,    the   first   of   the   asteroids   or   planetoids,  was   discovered. 
New  Facts  in        Three  others  were  soon  discovered,  and  later  on  smaller  ones 
the  Solar          began  to  be  found  in  multitudes,  so  that  by  the  end  of  the 
System  century  not  less  than   four  hundred   and  fifty  of  these  small 

planetary  bodies  were  known.  Of  other  discoveries  we  may  briefly  refer  to 
the  new  facts  discovered  concerning  comets  and  meteors,  planets  and  satellites, 
the  condition  of  the  sun's  surface,  the  detailed  knowledge  of  the  surface 
conditions  of  Mars  and  the  Moon,  the  character  of  Saturn's  rings,  the  dis- 
covery of  the  planet  Neptune  etc.,  all  due  to  nineteenth  century  research. 

In  the  group    of    sciences  known   under  the  general  title  of    Physics 

—chemistry,  light,  heat,  electricity,  and  magnetism — the  progress  has  been 

equally  decided  and  many  of  the  discoveries  of  almost  startling  signifiance. 

Chemistry,    as   it   exists   to-day,   is   almost   wholly  a   child   of   the   century. 

Many  chemical  substances  were  known  in  the  past,  but  their  number  sinks 

into  insignificance  as  compared  with  those  of  late  discovery.      Of  chemical 

conceptions   of  earlier  date,  Dalton's  theory  of  atoms  is  the   only  one  of 

importance  that  still  exists.     The  view  long  maintained — until 

The  Advance  of    j  t      jn    tke    njneteenth    century,    in    fact — that    organic    and 

Chemistry          .  .  ...  ;   ,    ,  .         .        \  .  . 

inorganic  chemistry  are  separated  from  each  other  by  a  wide 

gap,  is  no  longer  held.  Hundreds  of  organic  substances,  some  of  them  of 
great  complexity,  have  been  made  in  the  chemist's  laboratory,  and  can  now 
be  classed  as  properly  with  inorganic  as  with  organic  substances.  The  gap 
has  been  closed,  and  there  is  now  but  one  chemistry.  Only  the  most  intri- 
cate chemical  compounds  still  lie  beyond  the  chemist's  grasp,  and  the  isola- 
tion of  these  may  be  at  any  time  overthrown.  Organic  chemistry  has 
become  simply  the  chemistry  of  carbon-compounds. 


BARON  F.  H.  ALEXANDER  VON  HUMBOLDT. 


LOUIS  AGASSIZ. 


CHARLES  DARWIN. 


THOMAS  H.  HUXLEY. 


ILLUSTRIOUS    MEN    OF  SCIENCE,  19TH    CENTURY 


PASTEUR    IN    HIS    LABORATORY 

The  discovery  of  the  mission  of  the  exceedingly  minute  organisms  known  as  bacteria  in  producing  disease  ranks 

among  the  greatest  and  most  beneficient  of  our  age.     By  it  the  art  of  the  physician  was  first 

raised  to  the  rank  of  a  science.     The  honor  of  this  discovery  belongs  to 

Louis  Pasteur,  the  eminent  French  chemist  and  biologist. 


CHARLES  DARWIN  AND  DEVELOPMENT  OF  SCIENCE  577 

One  chemical  theory  of  recent  date,  the  vortex  atom  theory  of  Lord 
Kelvin,  has  quickly  met  its  fate,  being  abandoned  by  its  author  himself,  but 
the  study  of  it  has  been  rich  in  results.  It  is  now  widely  held  that  the 
universe  is  made  up  of  two  great  basic  elements,  ether  and  matter,  or 
perhaps  one  only,  since  it  seems  highly  probable  that  the  atom  of  matter  is 
a  minute,  self  coherent  mass  of  ether.  It  is  further  held  as  doubtful  that 
atoms  ever  exist  alone,  they  being  combined  by  their  attractions  into  small 
bodies  known  as  molecules,  which  are  in  incessant  motion,  and  to  whose 
activity  the  physical  force  of  the  universe  is  largely  due. 

One  of  the  most  important  chemical  discoveries  of  the  century  was  that 
of  the  "  periodic  law  "  of  the  chemical  elements,  advanced  by  the  Russian 
scientist  Mendel jeff,  under  which  the  weights  of  the  atoms  of  the  elements 
were  for  the  first  time  placed  in  harmony  with  each  other,  and  a  fixed 
numerical  relation  shown  to  exist  between  them.  We  may  conclude  this 
brief  glance  at  the  science  by  mention  of  the  very  high  temperature  which 
the  electric  furnace  has  now  placed  at  the  command  of  chemists,  and  the 
equally  great  refrigeration  now  attainable,  by  which  the  air  itself  can  easily 
be  liquified  and  even  frozen  into  a  solid  mass. 

Light,  naturally  one  of  the  earliest  of  the  phenomena  or  nature  to 
attract  the  attention  of  man,  was  little  understood  until  after  the  advent 

of  the  nineteenth  century.      It  was  of  old  supposed  to  be  a 

.  Light  and  Its 

substance  of  so  rapid  motion  as  to  be  practically  instantaneous      Phenomena 

in  its  movement  through  space.  Even  Newton  looked  upon 
it  as  a  substance  given  off  by  shining  bodies,  and  it  remained  for  Young,  in 
the  beginning  of  the  nineteenth  century,  to  prove  that  light  is  not  a  sub- 
stance but  a  motion,  a  series  of  rapid  waves  or  undulations  in  a  substance 
extending  throughout  space,  and  known  as  the  lumeniferous  ether.  The 
idea  that  light  is  instantaneous  in  its  motion  also  vanished  when  Roemer 
discovered,  by  observing  the  eclipses  of  Jupiter's  moons,  that  it  takes  about 
eight  minutes  for  the  ray  of  light  to  travel  from  the  sun  to  the  earth. 
A  cannon  ball  moving  at  the  rate  of  1,700  feet  per  second  would  take 
about  nine  years  to  make  the  same  journey,  the  wave  of  light  traveling  at 
the  extraordinary  speed  of  over  186,000  miles  in  a  second.  Yet  immensely 
rapid  as  is  this  rate  of  movement,  we  do  not  need  to  go  to  the  sun  and 
planets  to  measure  the  speed  of  light,  but  can  now  do  so,  by  the  use  of 
delicate  instruments,  on  a  few  miles  of  the  earth's  surface.  This  is  one  of 
the  great  discoveries  enumerated  by  Wallace. 

The  discoveries  in  relation  to  the  constitution  and  cnaracteristics  of 
light  made  during  the  century  have  been  so  numerous  that  we  must  confine 
ourselves  to  those  of  major  importance.  Much  might  be  said  about  the 

32 


578  CHARLES  DARWIN  AND  DEVELOPMENT  OF  SCIENCE 

phenomena  of  polarization,  refraction,  diffraction,  photography,  and  the  de- 
velopment of  the  power  of  lenses,  to  which  the  great  advance  in  telescopic 
and  microscopic  observation  is  due.    Among  these  steps  of  progress  perhaps 
the  most  interesting  is  the  development  of  instantaneous  photo- 
eries  in  Optics  &raPnv>  a  striking  result  of  which  is  the  power,  by  aid  of  pho- 
tographs taken  in  rapid  succession,  of  portraying  objects  in 
motion — living  pictures,  as  they  are  called — -an  exhibit  now  so  common  and 
so  marvelous.     But  among  all  the  advances  in  the  science  of  optics  the  most 
important  are  spectrum   analysis  and  the  Rontgen   ray.      The   remarkable 
discoveries  made  in  astronomy  by  the    former   of  these  have  been  already 
stated.      The  Rontgen   ray,  which   has  the  power  of    rendering    ordinarily 
opaque  substances  transparent,  has  become  of  extraordinary  value  in  surgery, 
as  showing   the  exact  location  of  foreign   substances  within  the  body,  the 
position  and  character  of  bone  fractures,  etc. 

Heat,  once  looked  upon  as  a  substance,  and  known  by  the  now  obsolete 
name  of  Caloric,  has  been  demonstrated  to  be,  like  light,  a  motion,  the 
incessant  leaping  about  of  the  molecules  of  matter,  this  motion  being  readily 
transferable  from  one  substance  to  another,  and  forming  the  great  substra- 
tum of  power  in  the  universe.  This  theory,  first  promulgated  by  Count 
Rumford,  an  American  by  birth,  was  fully  worked  out  by  others,  and  put  in 

popular  form  by  Professor  Tyndall,  an  English  scientist,  in  his 
Heat  as  a  Mode  .TT  ~  .,  ,  »*  --'«>••»*•  >>  i  i  •  i  i  •  o  ^ 

of  notion  Heat  Considered  as  a  Mode  of  Motion,    published  in   1862. 

Radiant  heat  is  identical  with  light,  being  a  vibration  of  the 
ether.  Tt  may  be  further  said  in  relation  to  heat  phenonema  that  remark- 
able power  in  producing  very  high  and  extremely  low  temperatures  is  now 
possessed.  By  the  former  the  most  refractory  substances  may  be  vaporized. 
By  the  latter  the  most  volatile  gases  may  be  liquified  and  even  frozen. 
The  point  of  absolute  zero,  that  in  which  all  heat  motion  would  disappear, 
is  estimated  to  be  at  the  temperature  of  274  degrees  6  minutes  centigrade 
below  the  freezing  point  of  water.  A  degree  of  cold  within  some  forty  de- 
grees of  this  has  been  reached  in  the  liquefaction  of  hydrogen.  In  1889  the 
climax  in  this  direction  was  reached  in  the  reduction,  by  Professor  Dewar, 
of  the  very  volatile  element  hydrogen  to  the  solid  state. 

Electricity,  formerly,  like  heat  and  light,  looked  upon  as  a  substance, 
is  now  known  to  be  a  motion,  being,  in  fact,  identical  in  origin  with  light 
Conservation  an^  radiant  heat.  All  these  forces  are  considered  to  be 

and  Correla-     motions  of  the  lumeniferous  ether,  their  principal  destinction 

•orces    being  in  length  of  wave.      In  fact,  it  is  easy  to   convert  one 

of  them   into  the   other,   and   the  great    doctrine  of  the  conservation  and 

correlation  of  forces  means  simply  that  heat,  light  and  electricity  may  be 


CHARLES  DARWIN  AND  DEVELOPMENT  OF  SCIENCE  579 

mutually  transformed,  and  that  no  loss  of  motion  or  force  takes  place  in 
these  changes  from  one  mode  of  motion  to  another.  In  the  operation  of 
the  electric  trolley  car,  to  offer  a  familiar  example,  the  heat  power  of  coal  is 
first  transformed  into  engine  motion,  then  into  electricity,  then  again  into 
light  and  heat  within  the  car,  then  into  mass  motion  in  the  motor,  and 
finally  passes  away  as  electricity.  No  better  example  of  the  ''correlation  of 
forces  "  than  this  familiar  instance  could  be  adduced. 

As  regards  the  nature  of  electricity,  though  innumerable  observations 
have  been  made  during  the  nineteenth  century  and  a  vast  multitude  of  facts 
put  upon  record,  we  know  little  more  than  is  above  stated.  But  if  we  turn 
to  the  practical  applications  of  electric  power,  it  is  to  find  these  standing 
high  among  the  great  advances  of  the  century.  To  it  we  owe  the  highly 
important  discoveries  of  the  telegraph  and  the  telephone ;  the  conversion 
of  engine  power  into  electricity  by  the  dynamo  and  the  use  of 

this   in   moving  cars,  carriages   and    machinery;    the    storage    APPIlcatlo"s  of 
......  f.        .  *         .          .   .        .  Electricity 

battery,  with  its  similar  applications  ;  the  use  of  electricity  in 

lighting  and  heating,  the  latter  remarkably  exemplified  in  the  electric  fur- 
nace, which  yields  the  highest  temperature  known  on  the  earth  ;  the  weld- 
ing of  metals  by  electricity  ;  the  electrotype  and  electro-plating  ;  the  con- 
version of  water  power  into  electric  force  and  its  transportation  by  wire  for 
long  distances ;  the  therapeutic  uses  of  the  electric  current,  and  other 
applications  too  numerous  to  mention. 

In  regard  to  the  magnet,  the  handmaid  of  electric  power,  we  know 
little  other  than  that  the  force  displayed  by  it  seems  to  be  a  result  of  some 
mode  of  rotation  in  the  atoms  or  molecules  of  matter,  since  all  the  effects 
of  magnetism  can  be  produced  by  the  rotary  motion  of  the  electric  cur- 
rent in  spirals  of  wire.  From  this  it  is  thought  that  the  mole- 
cular motion  to  which  magnetism  is  due  may  be  of  an  electric 
character,  though  the  permanence  of  the  magnetic  force 
renders  this  very  doubtful.  It  seems  most  probable  that  magnetism  is 
a  result  of  some  special  condition  of  the  ordinary,  inherent  motions  of  atoms 
— not  their  fluctuating  heat  activities,  but  those  fixed  motions  upon  which 
their  organization  and  persistence  depend.  The  readiness  with  which  soft 
iron  can  be  magnetized  and  demagnetized  by  the  use  of  the  electric  current 
is  of  extraordinary  value  in  the  practical  applications  of  electricity.  To 
this  fact  we  owe  the  dynamo  and  the  electric  motor,  with  all  their  varied  uses. 

With  this  passing  glance  at  the  physical  forces,  we  may  proceed  to  the 
consideration  of  the  great  science  of  geology,  which,  as  above  stated  by 
Foster,  is  a  new-born  science,  almost  wholly  of  nineteenth  century  develop- 
ment. Geology  as  it  now  exists  may  be  said  to  date  from  1790,  when 


580  CHARLES  DARWIN  AND  DEVELOPMENT  OF  SCIENCE 

William  Smith  published  his  ''Tabular  View,"  in  which  he  showed  the  proper 
succession  of  the  rock  strata  and  pointed  out  that  each  group  of  rocks  is 
marked  by  fossils  peculiar  to  itself.  With  his  work  began  that  great  series 
of  close  observations  which  still  continue,  and  which  have  laid  the  constitu- 
tion of  the  earth's  crust  open  before  us  in  many  of  its  intimate  details. 

Among  the  many  geologists  of  the  century  Sir  Charles  Lyell  stands 
prominent,  his  "  Principles  of  Geology  "  (1830-33)  forming  an  epoch  in  the 
advance  of  the  science.  Before  his  time  the  seeming  breaks  in  the  series  of 
the  rocks  were  looked  upon  as  the  results  of  mighty  catastrophes,  vast 
upheavals  or  depressions  in  the  surface,  which  worked  widespread  destruc- 
tion among  animals  and  plants,  these  cataclysms  being  followed  by  new 
creations  in  the  world  of  life.  Lyell  contended  that  the  forces 

Progress  m          nQW    t  work  are  of  the  same  type  as  those  which  have  been 
Geology  ' r 

always  at  work ;  that  catastrophes  have  always  been  local,  as 
they  are  now  local ;  that  general  forces  have  acted  slowly,  and  that  there  has 
been  no  world-wide  break,  either  in  rock  deposits  or  the  progress  of  human 
beings. 

His  views  gave  rise  to  a  conception  of  the  unbroken  continuity  of 
organic  life  which  was  greatly  strengthened  by  the  publication  of  Charles 
Darwin's  "  Origin  of  Species,"  which  went  far  to  do  away  with  the  old  belief 
that  each  new  life-form  has  arisen  through  special  creation,  and  to  replace  it  by 
the  theory  now  widely  held  that  all  new  forms  of  life  arise  through  hereditary 
descent,  with  variation,  from  older  forms.  In  this  conception  we  have  the 
basis  of  the  recent  theory  of  evolution,  so  thoroughly  worked  out  and 
widely  extended  since  Darwin's  time — a  theory  including  the  doctrine  that 
man  himself  is  a  result  of  descent,  and  not  of  special  creation. 

With  geology  is  closely  connected  the  Nebular  Hypothesis  of  Kant 
and  Laplace,  of  eighteenth  century  origin,  to  the  effect  that  all  the  spheres 
of  space  originated  in  the  condensation  and  rotation  of  immense  volumes 
of  nebulous  vapor,  similar  to  the  nebulae  now  known  to  exist  in  the 
heavens,  and  that  each  planet  began  its  existence  as  a  great  gaseous  globe, 
its  evolution  being  due  to  the  gradual  process  of  cooling  and  condensing, 
by  which  its  surface,  and  perhaps  its  whole  mass,  were  in  time  converted 
The  Nebular  mto  s°lid  matter.  This  interesting  doctrine  of  world  evolu- 
and  Meteoric  tion  does  not  remain  unquestioned.  A  new  hypothesis  was 
Hypotheses  advanced  by  Professor  Lockyer  in  the  final  decade  of  the 
nineteenth  century,  to  the  effect  that  spheral  evolution  is  not  due  to  the 
condensation  of  gaseous  nebulae,  but  of  vast  aggregations  of  those  meteoric 
stones  with  which  space  seems  filled,  and  which  are  drawn  together  by  their 
mutual  attractions,  become  intensely  heated  through  their  collisions,  and  are 


CHARLES  DARWIN  AND  DEVELOPMEN7  OF  SCIENCE  581 

converted  into  liquids  and  gases  through  the  heat  thus  evolved.  It  is  pos- 
sible that  the  visible  nebulae,  like  the  comets,  are  great  volumes  of  such 
meteors.  This  is  the  meteoric  theory  referred  to  in  Wallace's  category 
of  great  discoveries.  It  is  still,  however,  far  from  being  established. 

Meteorology,  the  study  of  the  atmosphere  and  its  phenomena,  is 
another  science  to  which  much  attention  was  given  during  the  century  under 
review.  A  vast  number  of  facts  have  been  learned  concerning  the  atmos- 
phere, its  alternations  of  heat  and  cold,  of  calm  and  storm, 

of   pressure,   of    diminution   of   density   and    loss    of    heat    in    The  Science  of 
,.  i      r   •       a  •  •      i          •  i-  •  Meteorology 

ascending,  and  ot   its  fluctuations  in  humidity,  with  the  varia- 
tions of    sunshine    and  cloud,   fog,    rain,   snow,   hail,   lightning  and    other 
manifestations. 

The  study  of  the  winds  has  been  a  prominent  feature  in  the  progress 
of  this  science,  and  our  knowledge  of  the  causes  and  character  of  storms 
has  been  greatly  developed.  The  theory  that  storms  are  due  to  great  rotary 
movements  in  the  atmosphere,  immense  cyclonic  whirls,  frequently  followed 
by  reverse,  or  anti-cyclonic,  movements,  has  gone  far  to  clear  up  the 
mystery  of  the  winds,  while  the  destructive  tornado,  the  terrific  local  whirl 
in  the  winds,  has  been  closely  studied,  though  not  yet  fully  understood. 
These  close  observations  of  atmospheric  changes  have  given  rise  to  the 
Weather  Bureau,  by  which  the  kind  of  weather  to  be  looked  for  is  pre- 
dicted for  the  United  States.  Similar  observations  and  predictions  have 
been  widely  extended  among  civilized  nations.  This  is  a  practical  applica- 
tion in  meteorology  which  has  been  of  immense  advantage,  particularly 
in  the  field  of  navigation. 

Of  the  sciences  with  which  the  nineteentn  century  has  had  much  to  do, 
those  relating  to  organic  life,  classed  under  the  general   title  of   biology, 
stand   prominent,  which  includes  botany  and   zoology.      Sub-    progress  jn  the 
siduary  to  these  are  the  sciences  of  anatomy,  physiology,  em-      Biological 
bryology,    psychology,    anthropology,  and    several   others    of 
minor  importance.     We  have,  here  laid  out  before  us  a  very  large  subject, 
which  has  made  remarkable  progress  during  the  past  hundred  years,  much 
too  great  to  handle  except  in  brief  general  terms. 

In  botany  and  zoology  alike,  the  development  of  the  cell  theory  is  one  of 
the  iriost  conspicuous  advances  of  the  century.  It  has  been  shown  clearly 
that  all  plants  and  animals  are  made  up  of  minute  cells,  semi-fluid  in  consis- 
tency, and  principally  made  up  of  a  highly  organized  chemical  compound 
known  as  protoplasm,  which  Huxley  has  denominated  the  "physical  basis  of 
life."  These  cells  are  the  laboratories  of  the  system.  Motions  and  changes 
take  place  within  them.  They  increase  in  size  and  divide  in  a  peculiar 


582  CHARLES  DARWIN  AND  DEVELOPMENT  OF  SCIENCE 

manner,  thus  growing  in  number.  Many  of  them  have  self-motion  like  that 
of  the  low  forms  known  as  amoebae.  Various  chemical  substances  are  elab- 
orated in  them,  such  as  the  osseous  structure  of  animals,  the  wood-fibre  of 
plants,  and  others  which  are  given  off  into  the  sap  or  the  blood.  In  short, 
they  are  the  foundation  stones  of  life,  and  the  physical  operations  of  the 
highest  beings  are  made  up  of  the  combined  and  harmonized  activities  of 
these  myriads  of  minute  cells. 

It  would  be  impossible,  unless  we  should  devote  a  volume  to  the  sub- 
ject, to  do  justice  to  the  progress  of  botany  and  zoology  in  the  nineteenth 
century.  This  progress  consists  largely  in  observation  and  description  of 
a  vast  multitude  of  varied  forms,  with  the  consequent  study  of  their 
Classification  of  affinities,  and  their  classification  into  family  groups,  ranging 
Plants  and  from  species  and  varieties  to  orders  and  classes,  or  from  minor 
and  local  to  major  and  general  groups.  Both  plants  and 
animals  have  been  divided  up  into  a  number  of  great  orders,  ranging  in 
the  former  instance  from  the  microscopic  bacteria  to  the  great  and  highly 
organized  exogens,  and  in  the  latter  from  the  minute  unicellular  forms  to 
the  mammalia.  We  have  here,  aside  from  the  cell-theory,  and  the  great 
progress  in  classification,  nothing  of  epoch-making  significance  to  offer, 
and  are  obliged  to  dismiss  these  subjects  with  this  brief  retrospect. 

There  are,  however,  two  fields  in  which  an  important  accumulation  of 
facts  in  reference  to  organic  life  has  been  made,  those  of  embryology  and 
paleontology.  The  study  of  the  organic  cell  by  the  microscope  is  one  of 
the  basic  facts  of  embiyology,  since  living  operations  take  place  within  this 
cell.  The  network  of  minute  fibres,  of  which  it  is  largely  made  up,  is  seen 
to  gather  into  two  star-shaped  forms  with  a  connecting  spindle 

Division  of  the         ,^.  ,        ,.    .    .  r      i  •    i     •        i  •     r    n  11         i 

Ce,,  of  fibres,  the  division  of  which  in  the  centre  is  followed  by  the 

division  of  the  cell  into  two.  This  is  the  primary  fact  in  repro- 
duction, new  cells  being  thus  born.  In  higher  production  two  cells,  arising 
from  opposite  sexes,  combine,  and  their  growth  and  division  give  rise  to  the 
organs  and  tissues  of  a  new  living  being.  It  is  the  development  of  these 
organs  and  tissues  that  constitutes  the  science  of  embryology. 

The  observation,  under  the  microscope,  of  the  stages  of  this  develop- 
ment, has  been  of  the  highest  value  in  the  study  of  animal  origin,  and  has 
aided  greatly  in  the  classification  of  animals.  Many  old  ideas  died  out 
when  it  was  clearly  shown  that  all  life  begins  in  a  single  cell,  from  which  the 
organs  of  the  new  being  gradually  arise.  The  most  important  lesson 
taught  by  embryology  is  that  the  embryo  in  its  development  passes  through 
various  stages  of  its  ancestry,  resembling  now  one,  now  another,  of  the 
lower  animals,  and  gains  for  a  brief  time  organs  which  some  of  its  ancestors 


CHARLES  DARWIN  AND  DEVELOPMENT  OF  SCIENCE  583 

possessed  permanently.  Of  these  facts  the  most  significant  is  that  the 
embryo  of  man  develops  gill-slits  like  those  which  the  fish  The  Sciences  of 
uses  in  breathing.  These  are  of  no  use  to  it  and  soon  disap-  the  Embryo 
pear,  but  their  appearance  is  very  strong  evidence  that  the  and  the  Fossil 
fish  form  lay  in  the  line  of  man's  ancestry,  and  that  man  has  developed 
through  a  long  series  of  the  lower  animals. 

In  palaeontology,  or  the  study  of  fossil  forms  of  animals  and  plant  life, 
we  have  the  embryology  of  races  as  contrasted  with  that  of  individuals. 
The  study  of  the  multitude  of  these  forms  which  has  been  collected  within 
the  past  century  has  enabled  man  to  fill  many  of  the  gaps  which  formerly 
appeared  to  divide  animal  forms,  and  has  furnished  very  strong  arguments 
in  favor  of  the  descent  of  new  species  from  older  ones.  One  of  the  most 
striking  of  these  facts  is  that  in  relation  to  the  horse,  of  which  a  practically 
complete  series  of  ancestral  forms  have  been  found,  leading  from  a  small 
five-toed  animal,  far  back  in  geological  time,  through  forms  in  which  the 
toes  decrease  in  number  and  the  animal  increases  in  size  until  the  large 
single-toed  horse  is  reached. 

Two  other  organic  sciences,  those  of  anatomy  and  physiology,  have 
added  enormously  to  our  knowledge  of  animated  nature.  Anatomy,  which 
is  of  high  practical  importance  from  its  relation  to  surgery,  is  a  science  of 
ancient  origin,  many  important  facts  concerning  it  having  been  discovered 
by  the  physicians  of  old  Greece  and  Rome.  This  study  continued  during 
later  centuries,  and  by  the  opening  of  the  nineteenth  the  gross  anatomy 
of  the  human  frame  was  fairly  well  known,  and  many  facts  in  its  finer 
anatomy  had  been  traced.  In  later  anatomical  work  the  microscope  has 
played  an  active  part,  and  has  yielded  numbers  of  important  revelations. 

What  is  known  as  comparative  anatomy  has  formed  perhaps  the  most 
important  field  of  nineteenth  century  study  in  this  domain  of 
science.      Though  this  branch  of  anatomical  study  is  as  old  as        ™p 
Aristotle,  little  was  done  in  it  from  his  time  to  that  of  Cuvier, 
who  was  the  founder  of  the  science  of  palaeontology,  and  the  first  to  show 
that  the  forms  and  affinities  of  fossil  forms  could  be  deduced  from  the  study 
of  existing  animals.      If  a  fossil  jaw  were  found,  for  instance,  with  the  teeth 
of  a  ruminant,  it  could  be  taken   for  granted  that  it  came  from  an  animal 
whos'e  feet  had  hoofs  instead  of  claws.      It  is  often  said  that  Cuvier  could 
construct  an  animal  from  a  single   bone,  and   though  this  is  saying  much 
more  than  the  facts  bear  out,  he  did  make  some  marvelous  predictions  of 
this  kind. 

A  notable  triumph  of  the  science  of  comparative  anatomy  was  the  pre- 
diction made  by  Cope,  Marsh,  and  Kowalewsky,  from  the  fact  that  specialized 


584  CHARLES  DARWIN  AND  DEVELOPMENT  OF  SCIENCE 

forms  are  preceded  by  others  of  more  generalized  structure,  that  an  animal 
must   once   have    existed    with   affinities,    on  the    one    hand,    with    hoofed 
animals,  and  on  the  other  with  the  carnivores  and  the  lemurs 
Concerning       This  prediction   was  fulfilled    in    the  discovery  of  the   fossil 
Fossil  An-        Phenacodus  in  the  Eocene   deposits  of   the   western    United 
States.      The  study  of  comparative  anatomy,  particularly  in  its 
application  to  fossil  forms,  has  aided  greatly  in  the  acceptance  of  the  doc- 
trine of  evolution,  and  has  been  specially  valuable  in  classification,  as  show- 
ing how  nearly  animals  are  related  to  each  other.     To  classify  animals  and 
plants,  in  short,  may  be  simply  stated  as  a  method  of  sorting  them  over  and 
placing  together  those  which  have  similar  characters,  just  as  in  arranging  a 
library  we  keep  together  books  which  relate  to  similar  subjects.      We  may, 
for    instance,    make   one    general    branch   of    history,   a   smaller  branch   of 
American  history,  and  yet  others  relating  to  states,  to  counties,  to   cities 
and  towns,  and,  most  special  of  all,  to  particular  families. 

The  science  of  physiology  differs  from  that  of  anatomy  in  dealing  with 
the  functions  of  life   instead  of  with   its  forms.      The  study  of   these   func- 
tions has  gone  on   for  many  centuries,  covering  the  various 
Discoveries  in      operations   of  motion,  nutrition,   respiration,    nervous    action, 

Physiology  '     .  •   ,        ,  •  r 

growth,  and  reproduction,  with  the  many  minor  tunctions 
included  under  these.  Though  many  of  the  facts  of  physiology  were  dis- 
covered in  earlier  centuries,  the  scientists  of  the  nineteenth  have  been  busy 
in  adding  to  the  list,  and  a  number  of  important  discoveries  have  been 
made.  Prominent  among  these  is  that  of  anaesthesia,  the  discovery  that 
by  the  inhalation  of  certain  gases  a  state  of  temporary  insensibility  can  be 
produced,  lasting  long  enough  to  permit  surgical  and  dental  operations  to 
be  performed  without  pain  ;  and  that  of  antiseptical  surgery,  in  which,  by  the 
employment  of  other  chemical  substances,  wounds  can  be  kept  free  from 
the  action  of  deleterious  substances,  and  surgical  operations  be  performed 
without  the  perils  formerly  arising  from  inflammation, — the  disease — produc- 
ing germs  and  poisons  being  kept  out. 

One  of  the  great  gains  of  the  century,  says  Sir  Michael  Foster,  from 
whom  we  have  already  quoted,  is  in  our  insight  into  nervous  phenomena. 
"  We  now  know  that  what  takes  place  along  a  tiny  thread  we  call  a. 
nerve  fibre  differs  from  that  which  takes  place  along  its  fellow  threads; 
that  differing  nervous  impulses  travel  along  different  nerve 
fibres  '>  and  that  nervous  and  psychical  events  are  the  outcome 
of  the  clashing  of  nervous  impulses  as  they  sweep  along  the 
closely  woven  web  of  living  threads,  of  which  the  brain  is  made.  We 
have  learned. by  experiment  and  observation  that  the  pattern  of  the  web 


CHARLES  DARWIN  AND  DEVELOPMENT  OF  SCIENCE  585 

determines  the  play  of  the  impulses  ;  and  we  can  already  explain  many  of 
the  obscure  problems,  not  only  of  nervous  disease,  but  of  nervous  life,  by  an 
analysis,  tracking  out  the  devious  and  linked  paths  of  the  nervous  threads." 
This  observation  links  together  the  sciences  of  physiology  and  psycho- 
logy, the  latter  the  science  of  mental  phenomena,  the  exact  study  of  which 
largely  belongs  to  the  nineteenth  century.  Broad  as  this  subject  is,  and 
much  as  has  been  done  in  it,  few  facts  stand  out  with  sufficient  distinctness 
to  call  for  special  mention  here.  The  most  famous  psychical  experiments 
are  those  made  on  the  brains  of  some  of  the  animals  below  man,  and  espe- 
cially on  that  of  the  monkey,  by  which  the  functions  of  the  several  sections 
of  the  brain  have  been  to  some  extent  mapped  out,  the  important  fact  being 
discovered  that  each  function  is  confined  to  a  fixed  locality  in  the  brain,  and 
with  it  the  accordant  fact  that  certain  regions  of  the  brain  control  the  mus- 
cular movements  of  certain  parts  of  the  body.  In  consequence, 

1          rr  /•     i       i          i    r  i  i  t  Brain  Surgery 

a  particular  anection  of  the  hand,  foot,  or  other  region  has  often 

been  traced  to  a  diseased  condition  of  some  known  part  of  the  brain,  and 

the  trouble  has  been  removed  by  a  surgical  operation  on  that  organ. 

The  sciences  last  named  refer  specially  to  man,  in  whom  they  have 
been  particularly  studied.  Other  sciences  relating  to  him  exclusively  are 
those  of  ethnology  and  anthropology,  which  belong  almost  solely  to  the 
nineteenth  century.  Ethnology,  the  study  of  the  races  of  mankind,  has 
been  carefully  and  widely  studied,  and  though  the  problems  relating  to  it 
have  not  yet  been  solved,  a  very  fair  conception  has  been  gained  of  the 
diversities  and  relations  of  mankind.  Anthropology,  embracing,  as  it  does, 
archaeology,  has  been  prolific  in  discoveries.  Archaeological 
research  has  laid  out  before  us  the  pathway  of  man  through  "" 
the  ages  and  shown  his  gradual  and  steady  development, 
through  the  successive  periods  of  chipped  stone  and  polished  stone  imple- 
ments, of  bronze  and  iron  tools  and  weapons,  with  his  gradual  development 
of  pottery,  ornament,  art,  architecture,  etc. 

The  most  striking  and  notable  fact  in  anthropological  science  is  the 
total  reversal  of  our  ideas  concerning  the  length  of  time  man  has  dwelt 
upon  the  earth.  The  old  limitation  to  a  few  thousand  years,  everwhere  held 
at  the  beginning  of  the  century,  fails  to  reach  back  to  a  time  when,  as  we 
now 'know,  man  had  reached  a  considerable  degree  of  civilization.  Back  of 
that  we  can  trace  him  by  his  tools  and  his  bones  through  a  period  many 
times  more  distant,  leading  back  to  the  glacial  age  of  geology  and  possibly 
to  a  much  more  remote  era.  Instead  of  man's  residence  upon  the  earth 
being  restricted  to  some  6,000  years,  it  probably  reached  back  not  less  than 
60,000,  and  possibly  to  a  much  earlier  period. 


586  CHARLES  DARWIN  AND  DEVELOPMENT  OF  SCIENCE 

Among  the  minor  sciences,  there  is  one  that  has  deserved  that  name 
only  within  the  past  thirty  or  forty  years,  the  science  of  medicine.  Formerly 
it  was  an  art  only,  and  by  no  means  a  satisfactory  one.  Nothing  was  known 
of  the  cause  of  the  most  virulent  and  destructive  diseases — the  infectuous 
Development  of  ^evers»  tne  plague>  cholera,  etc.  And  the  treatment  of  these, 
the  Science  and  in  fact  of  nearly  all  diseases,  was  wholly  empirical, 
of  Medicine  depending  solely  upon  experiment,  not  at  all  upon  scientific 
principles.  Experience  showed  that  certain  drugs  and  chemical  compounds 
produced  certain  effects  upon  the  system,  and  upon  this  physicians 
depended,  with  no  conception  of  the  cause  of  diseases  and  little  knowl- 
edge of  the  physiological  action  of  medicines. 

This  state  of  affairs  was  materially  changed  during  the  final  third  of 
the  nineteenth  century,  as  the  result  of  an  extensive  series  of  observations, 
set  in  train  in  great  part  by  Louis  Pasteur,  Professor  of  chemistry  at  the 
Sorbonne  in  Paris,  who  was  in  large  measure  the  originator  of  the  germ 
theory  of  disease.  The  discovery  that  the  fermentation  which  produces 
alcohol  is  due  to  a  microscopic  organism,  the  yeast-plant,  gave  Pasteur  the 
clue,  and  he  soon  was  able  to  prove  that  other  fermentations, — the  lactic, 
acetic,  and  butyric, — are  also  due  to  the  action  of  living  forms.  It  had 
further  been  found  that  the  putrefaction  of  animal  substance 
**  was  cause(^  m  tne  same  way,  and  it  has  since  been  abundantly 
demonstrated  that  if  these  minute  organisms  can  be  kept  out 
of  animal  and  vegetable  substances  these  may  be  preserved  indefinitely. 
This  fact  has  given  rise  to  one  of  the  most  important  industries  of  the 
century,  the  keeping  of  fruits,  meats,  etc.,  by  the  process  of  air-tight 
canning. 

Pasteur  next  extended  his  observations  to  the  silkworm,  which  was 
subject  to  an  epidemic  disease  that  had  almost  ruined  the  silk  industry  in 
France.  Others  before  him  had  discovered  what  were  supposed  to  be 
disease  germs  in  the  blood  of  these  worms.  He  proved  positively  that 
these  bacteria,  as  they  are  called,  are  the  cause  of  the  disease,  and  that 
infection  could  be  prevented  by  proper  precautions.  From  the  insect 
Pasteur  proceeded  to  the  higher  animals,  and  investigated  the  cause  of 
splenic  fever,  a  dangerous  epidemic  among  farm  cattle.  This  he  also 
proved  to  be  caused  by  a  minute  form  of  life,  and  that  fowl  cholera  is  due 
to  still  another  form  of  micro-organism.  At  a  later  date  he  studied  hydro- 
phobia, which  he  traced  to  a  similar  cause,  and  for  the  cure  of  which  he 
established  the  Pasteur  Institute  in  1886. 

This  was  not  the  whole  of  Pasteur's  work.  He  discovered  not  only 
the  cause  of  these  diseases,  but  a  system  of  vaccination  by  which  they  could 


CHARLES  DARWIN  AND  DEVELOPMENT  OF  SCIENCE  587 

be  cured  or  prevented.  By  ''cultivating"  the  bacteria  in  various  ways,  he 
succeeded  in  decreasing  their  dangerous  properties,  so  that  they  would  give 
the  disease  in  a  mild  form, — acting  in  the  same  way  as  vaccination  does  in 
the  case  of  small-pox,  by  enabling  the  animals  to  resist  virulent  attacks  of 
the  disease. 

Pasteur's  work  was  performed  largely  on  the  lower  animals.      Others 
have  devoted  themselves  to  the  infectuous  diseases  which  attack  the  human 
frame,  and  with  remarkable  success.      Robert  Koch,  a  German  physician, 
applied  himself  to   the   study  of  cholera,  which  he  proved  in    Koch  and 
1883  to  be  due  to  a  germ  named  by  him,  from  its  shape,  the      the  Comma 
comma  bacillus.      He  discovered    about    the   same    time    the      KacMus 
bacterial  organism  which  causes  the  fatal   disease  of  tuberculosis,  or  con- 
sumption.     Other    investigators    have    traced    typhoid    and    yellow   fevers, 
'diphtheria,  and  some  other  infectuous  diseases  to  similar  causes,  and  the 
study  of  diseases  of  this  character  has  at  last  gained  the  status  of  a  science. 

Methods  of  cure  are  also  becoming  scientific.  These  minute  organ- 
isms, once  introduced  within  the  body,  tend  to  increase  in  number  at  an 
amazing  rate,  feeding  on  the  blood  and  tissues,  and  giving  off  substances 
called  toxines  which  in  some  cases  are  of  highly  poisonous  character.  To 
overcome  their  effect  inoculation  of  anti-toxines  is  practiced.  These  are 
yielded  by  the  same  bacteria  as  produce  the  toxines,  and  inoculation  with 
them  enables  the  system  to  resist  the  action  of  the  toxin  poisons. 

We  must  dismiss  this  broad  subject  with  this  brief  consideration,  saying 
further  that  it  is  still  largely  in  the  stage  of  experiment,  and  that  many  of 
its  theories  must  be  left  to  the  twentieth  century  for  proof.  Its  study, 
however,  has  been  of  inestimable  value  in  another  direction,  that  of  antiseptic 
surgery,  a  mode  of  treatment  of  surgical  wounds  introduced 

C-      T  L    T  •  11  •  u      u        Antiseptic  Sur- 

by  Sir  Joseph  Lister,  and  now  used  by  all  surgeons  with  the  gery 
most  beneficial  effects.  It  being  recognized  that  inflamma- 
tion and  putrefactive  action  in  wounded  tissues  are  due  to  the  action  of 
disease  germs  introduced  by  the  air  or  by  the  hands  and  instruments  of  the 
operators,  the  greatest  care  is  now  taken,  by  the  use  of  chemical  substances 
fatal  to  those  germs,  to  prevent  their  entrance.  As  a  result  many  diseases 
once  common  in  hospitals — pyaemia,  septicaemia,  gangrene  and  erysipelas- 
have  almost  disappeared,  fever  and  the  formation  of  pus  are  prevented,  and 
healing  is  rapid  and  continuous,  while  surgeons  now  daringly  and  success- 
fully undertake  operations  in  the  most  secret  recesses  of  the  body,  which 
formerly  would  have  led  to  certain  death. 

A  secondary  result  of  the  germ  theory  of  disease  is  the  great  advance 
in  hygiene,  which,  formerly  almost  non-existent,  has  now  reached  the  status 


588  CHARLES  DARWIN  AND  DEVELOPMENT  OF  SCIENCE 

of  a  science.  It  is  still  against  these  perilous  germs  that  continuous  battle 
is  kept  up,  absolute  cleanliness  being  the  ultimatum  at  which 
* *  physicians  aim.  Disease  germs  lurk  everywhere,  and  can 
only  be  combatted  by  incessant  care.  The  bacteria  of  cholera 
and  typhoid  fever,  for  example,  are  known  to  be  conveyed  in  water,  and  the 
former  epidemics  of  these  diseases  were  in  great  measure  due  to  the  free 
use  of  polluted  water  for  drinking.  Their  ravages  have  been  largely 
arrested  by  boiling,  filtering  or  otherwise  purifying  drinking  water,  while 
the  free  use  of  carbolic  acid  and  other  antiseptics  in  hospitals  has  put  an 
end  to  the  reign  of  infection  which  once  made  those  places  hives  of  disease. 
We  may  fitly  conclude  this  chapter  with  reference  to  a  subject  several 
times  referred  to  in  its  pages,  and  which  is  looked  upon  as  the  greatest 
scientific  theory  of  the  century,  that  of  evolution.  The  belief  that  new 
species  of  animals  and  plants  arise  through  development  from  older  ones  is 
not  of  recent  origin,  but  is  at  least  as  old  as  Aristotle.  It  was  taught  by 
Harvey,  Erasmus  Darwin,  Goethe,  and  others  in  the  eighteenth  century, 
but  the  first  attempt  to  develop  a  general  theory  of  organic  evolution  was 
made  by  Lamarck,  in  the  early  part  of  the  succeeding  century.  Lamarck's 
view,  however,  that  the  variations  in  animals  are  the  result  of  efforts  on 
their  part  to  gain  certain  results, — the  neck  of  the  giraffe,  for  instance 
growing  longer  through  its  attempt  to  browse  on  leaves  just  out  of  reach,— 
did  not  gain  acceptance,  and  it  was  not  until  after  the  middle  of  the  century 
that  a  more  satisfactory  theory  was  presented. 

The  theory  of  evolution,  as  now  understood,  was  arrived  at  simulta- 
Darwin  and         neously  by  Alfred    Russell  Wallace   and   Charles   Darwin,  it 
Natural  Se-      being  fully  worked  out  by  the  latter  in  his  "  Origin  of  Species 
lection  by   Means   of    Natural   Selection,"   published   in    1859.     This 

theory — that  the  changes  in  animals  are  due  to  the  struggle  for  existence 
among  vast  multitudes,  and  the  survival  of  those  whose  natural  variations 
in  form  give  them  an  advantage  over  their  fellows  in  the  battle  of  life — is 
now  accepted  by  the  great  body  of  scientists,  while  the  general  idea  of  evolu- 
tion has  been  extended  to  cover  all  changes  in  the  universe,  inorganic  as 
well  as  organic.  This  extension  has  been  the  work  of  Herbert  Spencer  and 
many  other  scientific  and  philosophical  writers,  and  no  domain  of  nature  is 
now  left  outside  of  the  range  of  evolutionary  forces.  The  argument  which 
makes  man  himself  a  result  of  evolution,  and  not  a  product  of  special  creation, 
was  the  final  one  presented  by  Darwin,  and  has  given  point  to  a  multitude 
of  observations  in  the  science  of  anthropology  made  since  his  day. 


CHAPTER   XL, 
Literature  and  Art  in  the  Nineteenth  Century. 

FOR  ages  the  world  has  swarmed  with  writers.  Almost  since  man  first 
began  to  think  he  has  been  actively  engaged  in  literary  labor  ;  long* 
indeed,  before  he  had  learned  the  art  of  writing,  and  when  the  work 
of  his  mind  could  be  preserved  only  in  his  memory  and  that  of  his  fellows. 
And  the  progress  of  man  down  the  ages  is  starred  with  names  that  gleam 
like  suns  in  the  firmament  of  thought,  those  of  such  great  magicians  of  the 
intellect  as  Homer,  Virgil,  Dante,  Chaucer,  Shakespeare,  Milton,  and  a 
host  besides.  In  this  field  of  human  effort,  therefore,  the  Tne  Literary 
nineteenth  century  has  nothing  peculiar  to  show.  Its  finest  Giants  of  For- 
labors  are  surpassed  by  those  of  others  who  lived  centuries  or  mer  Times 
ages  ago.  Here,  almost  alone  in  the  circle  of  human  labors,  the  century 
we  deal  with  stands  on  the  level  of  many  of  its  predecessors  and  below 
that  of  others.  Its  single  claim  to  distinction  is  an  extraordinary  activity 
in  literary  production,  and  especially  in  the  field  of  novelistic  fiction,  which 
it  may  in  great  measure  claim  as  its  own.  The  novel  before  the  nineteenth 
century  was  a  crude  pioneer  ;  within  the  century  it  has  grown  into  a  product 
of  the  most  advanced  culture. 

What    has    been    said    about    literature    may  be    repeated    about  art. 
That,  too,  seemingly  reached  its  culmination  in  the  past,  and  the  artists  of 
to-day  can  merely  seek  to  emulate,  they  cannot  hope  to  surpass,  those  of 
former  centuries.     Sculpture,  for  instance,  reached  its  highest 
stage    of   perfection    in    Greece,    and    painting    in    mediaeval      of  the  Fine 
Europe  ;  and  strive  as  our  artists  may,  they  seem  incapable      Arts  in  the 
of  producing  works  of  superior  beauty  and  charm  to  those  of      pj^^t  * 
the  long  ago.     The  architecture  of  to-day  is  largely  a  rescript 
of  that  of  the  past,  the   original   ideas  are  few,  nobler  and  more  beautiful 
conceptions  are  wanting.     Of  the  remaining  fine  arts,  music   and  poetry — 
if  we  may  class  the  latter  in  this  category — the  work  of  former  centuries  re- 
mains unsurpassed,  and  the  best  that  can  be  done  with  the  nineteenth  century- 
authors  and  artists  is  to  mention  their  works  and  speak  of  their  styles  :  it  is 
impossible  to  place  them  on  a  pedestal  overlooking  that  of  their  predecessors. 


592          LITERATURE  AND  ART  IN  THE  NINETEENTH  CENTURY 

Yet  while  what  has  been  said  is  true  as  a  whole,  the  literature  of  at  least 
one  country  is  almost  wholly  a  product  of  the  nineteenth  century.  This 
is  the  United  States,  which  had  writers,  but  little  which  fairly  deserves  the 
name  of  literature,  prior  to  1800.  Aside  from  the  famous  papers  of  the 
Federalist,  the  work  of  the  great  statesmen  of  the  Constitutional  Convention, 
the  writings  of  one  or  two  authors  of  the  Revolutionary  period, 
Early  American  an(^  some  of  those  of  Benjamin  Franklin,  this  country  possessed 
hardly  any  literature,  truly  so-called,  before  the  days  of  Wash- 
ington Irving,  whose  polished  "  Sketch  Book"  essays,  popular  histories  of 
Columbus  and  Mahomet,  and  humorous  "  History  of  New  York,"  first  taught 
the  English  critics  that  Americans  could  write  as  well  as  fight  and  work,  and 
that  a  new  world  of  thought  was  likely  to  arise  beyond  the  waters  Irving  was 
not  alone.  Contemporary  with  him  were  a  number  of  graceful  poets,  chief 
among  them  being  William  Cullen  Bryant,  whose  "  Thanatopsis,"  still  an 
American  classic,  is  perhaps  unequalled  in  depth  of  reflection  and  grandeur 
of  thought  by  the  work  of  any  other  author  of  nineteen  years  of  age. 

Bryant,  however,  did  not  rise  above  this  early  effort,  but  rather  declined, 
and  he  has  been  far  surpassed  in  poetic  fervor  and  richness  of  diction  and 
conception  by  a  number  of  his  successors,  notably  Whittier,  Longfellow  and 
Lowell,  men  worthy  to  occupy  a  place  beside  the  famous  English  poets  of 
the  century.  Of  these,  Longfellow  has  gained  the  widest  reputation,  not, 
however,  through  force  of  superior  genius,  but  from  the  sweetness,  grace 
and  ease  of  his  diction  and  the  popular  character  of  his  themes 

The  Poets  of  the  ancj  nancjiincr  which  have  fitted  his  verse  to  touch  the  heart  of 
United  States  f ' 

the  people  in  all  lands,      Lowell  was  not  only  a  poet  of  rare 

depth  of  thought,  but  stands  as  the  first  of  American  satirists,  his  ''  Biglow 
Papers"  being  among  the  keenest  and  most  humorous  works  of  satire  of 
the  century,  while  they  rank  with  the  most  purely  national  of  American 
works.  Of  other  American  poets,  of  whom  many  of  fine  powers  might 
be  named,  we  shall  mention  only  Edgar  Allan  Poe,  the  most  original  in  style 
and  musical  in  tone  of  all  our  writers  of  verse  ;  the  witty  and  genial  Oliver 
Wendell  Holmes  ;  and  Ralph  Waldo  Emerson,  whose  verse,  while  lacking 
polish  and  smoothness,  is  rich  in  poetic  thought. 

It  was  rather  in  his  philosophy  than  in  his  poetry  that  the  rich 
imagination  and  fine  powers  of  reflection  of  Emerson  made  themselves 
manifest,  and  his  essays  stand  prominent  among  the  finest  thought  products 
of  the  century.  They  are  expressed  in  telling  apothems,  of  which  many 
are  little  poems  in  themselves,  while  his  works  are  instinct  with  the  finest 
spirit  of  altruism  and  optimism,  taking  the  most  hopeful  and  cheerful  views 
of  the  future  of  man  and  his  institutions. 


LITERATURE  AND  ART  IN  THE  NINETEENTH  CENTURY         593 

Among  popular  American  novelists  James  Fenimore  Cooper  stands  as 
the  pioneer,  his  tales  of  ocean  and  Indian  life,  while  of  no  superior  merit  as 
literature,  holding  a  wide  audience  by  their  spirit  of  adventure  and  care- 
ful elaboration.  Most  original  of  our  writers  is  Nathaniel  Hawthorne, 
whose  "  Scarlet  Letter,',  "Marble  Faun,"  and  other  novels  stand  in  a  field  of 
their  own  among  the  productions  of  the  century,  and  take  rank  with  the  best 
of  European  productions.  For  the  sensational  and  lurid  tale  Poe  stands  first, 
and  his  genius  in  this  direction  still  brings  him  readers,  despite  the  impossible 
incidents  of  many  of  his  plots.  Of  other  novelists  we  may 
name  Harriet  Beecher  Stowe,  with  her  famous  "Uncle  Tom's 
Cabin  ;"  Howells,  our  leading  naturalistic  novelist ;  Edward 
Everett  Hale,  made  famous  by  his  "Man  Without  a  Country;"  Edward 
Eoro-leston,  with  the  flavor  of  frontier  life  in  his  "  Hoosier  Schoolmaster," 

£>t> 

Lew  Wallace,  who  touched  a  deep  vein  of  popular  approval  in  his  "  Ben 
Hur  ;"  Henry  James,  too  scholarly  perhaps  to  be  highly  popular,  but  of  the 
finest  literary  skill ;  Helen  Hunt  Jackson,  whose  "  Ramona"  depicts  in  thrill- 
ing idealism  the  wrongs  of  the  Indians;  and — but  we  must  stop  here,  for  as 
we  approach  the  present  day  novelists  of  merit  so  throng  the  field  of  view 
that  we  cannot  venture  even  to  name  them. 

Not  the  least  notable  field  of  American  literature  lies  in  the  domain  of 
history,  in  which  the  authors  of  our  country  hold  their  own  with  the  best  of 
those  abroad.      Irving's  graceful,  though  not  critical,  works  of   Historians  of 
history  we    have    mentioned.     Greatest    in    this   field    stands      the  United 
Bancroft,  whose  history  of  our  country  is  a  classic  of  world-      states 
wide   fame.     Close  beside  him  may  be  placed   Prescott,  with    his  glowing 
pictures  of  Spanish  and  Spanish-American  life  ;     Motley,  the    skilled  and 
popular  historian  of  the  Netherlands ;  Parkman,  who  brilliantly  pictures  for 
us  the  romance  of  French  enterprise  in  America;  McMaster,  who  may  fairly 
pose  as  the  historian  of  the  American  people  ;  and  Parton,  whose  historical 
biographies   are   among   the    most    readable   of   American    books    of    this 
character. 

Our  greatest  orators,  men  whose  speeches  have  become  literature,  hold 
a  place  in  the  history  of  our  country.  The  famous  Webster  and  Clay  and 
Calhoun  we  have  already  described.  Close  after  those  come  Sumner, 
Seward  and  others  who  stood  high  in  the  stirring  period  of  the 

,      r  .  A    •  i      r  11-  i  American  Ora- 

Civil  War  and  of  reconstruction.     Aside  from  public  speakers      tors 
devoted  to  statesmanship  are  many  others  of  fame,  including 
the   eloquent  Edward    Everett ;    the    daring   anti-slavery    orator,   Wendell 
Phillips;    the. earnest  platform  apostle  of   temperance,  John  B.  Gough  ;  the 
greatest  of  our  pulpit  orators,  Henry  Ward  Beecher;  the  advocate  of  the 


S94          LITERATURE  AND  ART  IN  THE  NINETEENTH  CENTURY 

'*  New  South,  Henry  W.  Grady  ;  the  most  amusing  of  our  recent  orators, 
Chauncey  M.  Depew,  and  others  of  fine  powers  whom  the  need  of  brevity 
forbids  our  naming.  The  mention  of  Depew's  vein  of  humor  calls  to  mind 
this  domain  of  literature,  of  which  our  country  has  had  many  popular  repre- 
sentatives, chief  among  whom  stands  the  rollicking  and  favorite  Samuel  L. 
Clemens  (Mark  Twain). 

It  has  not  been  proposed  here  to  present  more  than  a  passing  review  of 
the  authors  of  the  United  States,  or  to  attempt  to  name  all  those  of 
leading  merit.  We  might  have  named  in  political  economy  Henry  C.Carey  ; 
in  American  history,  John  Fiske  ;  in  European  church  history,  Henry  C. 
Lea ;  and,  in  addition,  eminent  authors  in  legal  lore,  in  science,  in  philos- 
ophy, in  theology,  and  in  other  fields,  all  aiding  to  show  the  vast  advance 
our  people  have  made  in  this  important  direction  since  their  feeble  begin- 
nings in  the  early  days  of  the  century. 

Unlike  the  United  States,  Great  Britain  came  to  the  nineteenth  century 
with  a  great  galaxy  of  famous  writers,  leading  back  through  many  centuries. 

The  eighteenth  century  is  rich  in  great  names,  including: 
The  Poets  of  °  £  ,,  &_  ,  _, 

Great  Britain    among  its  poets  rope,  Burns,  Lowper,  Gray  and    1  hompson  ; 

among  its  essayists,  Acldison,  Swift  and  Johnson  ;  among  its 
novelists,  Richardson,  Fielding,  Smollet,  Sterne,  and  Goldsmith  ;  among  its 
historians  Gibbon,  Hume  and  Robertson.  It  crossed  the  portals  of  the 
nineteenth  century  with  a  galaxy  of  poets  more  brilliant  than  has  appeared 
in  any  equal  period  of  English  literature,  including  the  world-famous  Byron, 
Wordsworth,  Coleridge,  Shelley,  Moore,  Keats,  Scott  and  Campbell,  a 
group  of  writers  which,  taken  as  a  whole,  it  would  be  difficult  to  match  in 
any  age.  These  sweet  singers  have  been  followed  by  others  who  have  kept 
up  the  standard  of  British  poetry,  including  Tennyson,  one  of  the  rarest  of 
artists  in  words,  the  two  Brownings,  Matthew  and  Edwin  Arnold,  William 
Morris,  Swinburne,  the  Rossettis,  and  various  others  of  lesser  note,  among 
whom  we  must  include  Alfred  Austin,  the  latest  though  not  the  most 
admired  poet-laureate.  These  are  but  the  elder  flight  of  singing  birds 
of  the  century,  many  younger  ones  being  on  the  wing,  among  whom  at 
present  Rudyard  Kipling  leads  the  way. 

In  the  second  field  of  imaginative   literature,  that  of  the  novel,  the 

British  isles  are  abundantly  represented,  and  by  some  of  the  most  famous 

British  Novel-     names  anywhere  existing  in  this  domain  of  intellectual  activity. 

istsand  The  names  alone  of   these    writers  form  a  catalogue    rarely 

Historians         equalled  in  the  world's  literature.      It  will  suffice  to  name  Scott, 

Thackeray,  Dickens,  Bulwer,  Charlotte    Bronte   and  Marion  Evans  as    the 

most  prominent  among  a  multitude  of  able  writers,  containing  many  names 


LITERATURE  AND  ART  IN  THE  NINETEENTH  CENTURY         595 

high  in  merit  and  rich  in  variety  of  style.     At   the   end  of  the  century  the 
field  was  crowded  with  writers  of  conspicuous  skill. 

History  has  reached  a  high  level  in  the  hands  pf  some  of  the  ablest 
writers  in  this  field  known  in  any  age,  including  Macaulay,  Freeman, 
Froude,  Grote,  Thirwall,  Hallam,  Merivale,  Buckle,  Leckey,  Carlyle  and 
Green.  Two  of  these,  Carlyle  and  Macaulay,  have  won  as  high  a  place  in 
the  field  of  criticism  and  biography  as  in  that  of  history.  In  art  criticism 
Ruskin  occupies  a  unique  position,  while  theological  subjects  and  religious 
thought  are  represented  by  such  able  exponents  as  Cardinal  Newman, 
Dean  Stanley,  Canon  Liddon,  Dean  Farrar,  Martineau,  Whately,  Drummond, 
Spurgeon  and  many  others.  The  great  reviewers  include  Jef- 
frey, Lydrely,  Smith,  Hazlitt,  De  Quincey,  Foster;  the  wits 
Sheridan,  Hook,  Jerrold,  Smith  and  Hood  ;  the  philosophers 
Stewart,  Bentham,  Brown,  Hamilton,  Spencer  and  Stuart  Mill ;  and  the  scien- 
tists Owen,  Faraday,  Murchison,  Darwin,  Huxley,  Tyndall  and  various  others. 

The  above  named  are  merely  some  of  the  best  known  English  writers  of 
the  century.     If  it  were  attempted  to  name  all  those  of  merit  the  list  would  be 
wearisomely  long.     The  same  may  be  said  of  the  literary  men  of  France,  of 
whom  many  of  world-wide  fame  flourished  during  the  nineteenth  century.   At 
the  beginning  of  the  new  age  appeared  the  versatile  Madame  de  Stae'l,  and 
Chateaubriand  with  his  famous  "  Genius  of  Christianity.'"     These  ushered 
in   a  host   of  able  writers,  of  whom   the   leading  lyric   poets  were  Victor 
Hugo,   Beranger,  Lamartine  and  Alfred  de   Musset,  and  the   most  prom- 
inent novelists  Hugo,  Dumas,  Sue,  Balzac,  Dudevant  (George    French  Novel- 
Sandj,    succeeded    in    later   years   by    the    younger    Dumas,      istsand 
Feuillet,    Murger,    Zola,    About   and    a    host   besides.      Dra- 
matic writers  have  been   little    less    numerous,   and    essayists  and  literary 
critics  of  merit  might  be  named  by  the  dozen,  among  them  the  well-known 
names  of  Renan,  St.  Beuve,  Gautier,  Taine,  Girardin  and  Remusat. 

Perhaps  the  most  successful  branch  of  recent  French  literature  is  his- 
tory, around  which  a  brilliant  galaxy  of  great  names  has  gathered.  Prom- 
inent among  these  are  Guizot,  Thierry  and  Thiers,  to  whom  may  be  added, 
as  able  writers  of  the  history  of  their  country,  Sismondi,  Michelet,  Martin, 
Barante  and  Mignet.  Other  workers  in  this  field  are  Lamartine  and  Ville- 
main,  while  in  philosophy,  sociology  and  the  various  branches  of  science 
the  writers  have  been  numerous,  and  many  of  them  of  high  ability. 

The  writers  of  Germany  have  been  as  prolific  as  those  of  England  and 
France,  though  the  greatest  names  of  that  country,  such  giants  of  thought 
as  Goethe,  Schiller,  and  Kant,  belong  to  the  closing  period  of  the  eighteenth 
century,  and  have  found  no  equals  in  the  nineteenth.  Kant  was  succeeded 

33 


596          LITERATURE  AND  ART  IN  THE  NINETEENTH  CENTURY 

by   three    other   great    metaphysical    philosophers,    Fichte,    Scrolling,   and 

Hegel,  the  four  forming  a  group  nowhere  matched  for  depth  of  thought  in 

any  similar  period  of  time.     In  poetry,  Gcethe  and  Schiller 

German  Poets      were  succeecjed  by  the  song  writers  Korner,  Arndt,  Ruckert, 

and  Novelists 

and  Uhland,  while  of  the  poets  of  later  date  Heine  undoubtedly 
ranks  first.  Fiction  was  enormously  developed  during  the  century,  Gustav 
Freytag  being  one  of  the  most  eminent  novelists,  while  others  of  note  were 
Hacklander,  Spielhagen,  Heyse,  Ebers,  Auerbach,  and  of  women  writers 
Ida  von  Hahn-Hahn,  Fanny  Lewald,  Schopenhauer,  and  Marlitt.  Famous 
authors  who  have  dealt  with  the  mysterious  agencies  of  nature  are  De  la 
Motte  Fouque,  the  author  of  the  charming  "  Undine,"  Chamisso,  with  his 
fantastic  "  Peter  Schlentihl,"  and  Hoffmann,  whose  tales  of  wonder  and 
fantasy  are  of  the  first  merit.  Best  known  among  fantastic  and  imaginative 
writers  is  Jean  Paul  Richter,  whose  satirical  and  humorous  novels  had  a 
striking  effect  upon  German  thought  at  the  beginning  of  the  century.  Of 
German  humorists,  Fritz  Reuter  occupies  perhaps  the  highest  rank. 

In  the  field  of  science  and  exploration  the  literature  of  Germany  is  rich. 

German  Scien-     Scientific    travel  was  given   a  great   impetus   by  the  famous 

tistsand  works  of  Alexander  von   Humboldt,  —  "Cosmos,"   "  Views  of 

Nature,"  etc.,  —  and  his  example  has  been  abundantly  followed. 

Among  his  more   famous  successors  are   Martins,  the  learned  traveler  in 

Brazil  ;  Tschudi,    in  Peru  ;  Lepsius  and   Brugsch,    in   Egypt  ;    Giitzlaff,   in 

China  ;    Earth,   Vogel,   and   Schweinfurth,    in   Africa  ;    and   Leichhardt,    in 

Australia. 

In  scientific  literature  of  high  value  Germany  is  strong,  its  .  writers 
including  Bessel,  Encke,  Madler,  and  Struve,  in  astronomy  ;  Muller,  Ehren- 
berg,  Liebig,  Virchow,  Vogel,  Helmholtz,  Haeckel,  Kirchhoff,  von  Baer, 
and  many  others  in  natural  science.  The  historians  are  of  unsurpassed 
critical  excellence,  and  embrace  Von  Ranke,  Curtius,  Mommsen,  von  Muller, 
Heeren,  Niebuhr,  Neander,  Menzel,  and  many  more.  In  philology  and 
critical  study  may  be  named  Wolf,  Hermann,  the  brothers  Grimm,  Bopp, 
Benecke,  and  Haupt.  Critical  essayists  include  the  two  Schlegels,  von 
Hardenberg  (Novalis),  Tieck,  Schelling,  and  Wilhelm  von  Humboldt. 

This  is  by  no  means  an  exhaustive  list  of  the  prominent  German 
authors  of  the  nineteenth  century,  and  we  must  deal  still  more  briefly  with 
the  other  nations  of  Europe.  Russia  may  fairly  be  ranked  with  the  United 
States,  as  being,  in  a  literary  sense,  largely  confined  to  the 


^       nineteenth  century.      It  had  some  writers  of  merit  of  earlier 


date,  largely  poets  and  fabulists,  but  the  first  prose  writer  of 
excellence  of  style  was  Nicholas  Karamzin,  whose  famous  "  History  of  the 


LITERATURE  AND  ART  IN  THE  NINETEENTH  CENTURY 


597 


Russian  Empire  "  began  to  appear  in  1815.  Poetry  also  became  more  merit- 
orious in  this  period,  Alexander  Pushkin,  the  greatest  of  Russian  poets,  giv- 
ing to  the  world  some  charming  narratives  in  verse.  Ivan  Kriloff  won  fame 
as  a  writer  of  fables,  while  other  poets  of  merit  appeared,  among  them 
Koltsov,  the  writer  of  Russian  national  songs. 

In  the  field  of  fiction  the  first  of  special  merit  was  Nicholai  Gogol, 
one  of  the  most  powerful  of  Russian  novelists  ;  but  the  first  to  gain  a 
European  fame  was  Ivan  Turgeneff.  Greatest  among  his  successors  is 
Count  Leo  Tolstoi,  who  entered  this  field  with  "  War  and  Peace,"  the  record 
of  his  experience  in  the  Crimean  war.  His  radical  studies  of  the  problems 
of  social  life  have  since  led  to  a  number  of  works  of  striking  character, 
which  have  won  him  a  world-wide  fame.  In  romantic  fiction  Russian  writers 
have  gained  much  celebrity,  and  they  include  able  authors  in  history,  science 
ar"i  other  fields. 

The  three  Scandinavian  nations,  Denmark,  Sweden  and  Norway,  have 
been  active  in  literary  production,  and  possess  many  authors  of  national 
fame,  and  several  who  are  read  and  admired  throughout  the  world.  Of 
high  standing  among  the  poets  of  Sweden  is  the  popular  poet  Runeberg, 
born  in  Finland  in  1804,  who  possessed  a  poetic  genius  of  the  highest 
quality.  But  the  most  celebrated  poet  of  Sweden  is  Esaias  Tegner,  whose 
"  Frithiofs  Saga"  has  won  him  a  world-wide  fame,  it  having  been  translated  in- 
to the  principal  modern  languages,  though  with  great  loss  of  the 
beauty  of  the  original.  Almquist,  a  man  of  fine  genius  and  T 
wide  knowledge,  was  a  poet  and  novelist  of  the  romantic 
school,  his  novels  including  "  Book  of  the  Rose,"  "  The  Palace,"  etc. 
Stagnelius,  another  poet  of  eminence,  obtained  fame  by  his  epic  of 
"Wladimir  the  Great."  The  novelists  include  several  well-known  women 
writers,  the  productions  of  Fredrika  Bremer  and  Emilie  Carlen  having 
gained  popularity  in  English  translations.  Fredrika  Runeberg,  wife  of 
the  poet,  was  also  a  popular  novelist,  while  favorite  male  writers  of  histori- 
cal novels  include .  Mellin,  Sparre,  Topelius,  and  Rydberg,  the  last  also  a 
popular  poet.  Wetterbergh  (Uncle  Adam)  gained  reputation  by  his 
humorous  tales  of  Swedish  home  life. 

Most  famous  of  the  poets  af  Norway  is  Wergeland,  the  Schiller  of  his 
country,  his  works  including  tragedies,  poems  and  satires.  Various  later 
writers  followed  in  his  line,  including  Moe,  Jensen,  Kjerulf  and  Thomsen. 
Chief  among  Norwegian  novelists  is  Bjornson,  the  author  of  a  series 
of  charming  studies  of  the  peasant  life  of  his  country,  all  which  are  popular 
in  English  speaking  countries.  Others  who  have  wrought  in  the  same  field 
are  Thoresen  and  Lie.  But  most  famous  of  the  recent  writers  of  Norway 


598          LITERATURE  AND  ART  IN  THE  NINETEENTH  CENTURY 

is  the  dramatist  Ibsen,  a  thorough  playwright  on  historical  and  romantic 

Literature  of       themes,  and  on  social  problems.      It  is  the  striking  and  radical 

Sweden  and      character  of  his  productions  in  the  last  named  field,  including 

Norway  „  ^   Doll's  House"  and  various  others,  to  which  he  owes  his 

widespread    fame,  and    the    severe    criticism    with    which    his  works    have 

been  assailed. 

The  Danish  literature  of  the  nineteenth  century  opened  with  Jens 
Baggesen,  whose  lyrics,  mock-heroic  poems,  and  "  Comic  Tales  "  are  much 
admired.  The  great  poet  of  Denmark,  however,  is  Oehlenschlager,  who 
produced  tragedies  of  the  highest  merit,  while  his  splendid  epic  poem, 
"The  Gods  of  the  North,"  is  one  of  the  noblest  modern  works  of  this 
character.  Of  the  many  other  Danish  writers  of  the  century  we  shall  name 
only  the  famous  Hans  Christian  Andersen,  whose  folk-tales  are  household 
words  throughout  the  world. 

The  literary  fame  of  Spain  rests  with  its  authors  of  the  past,  there 
being  few  of  notable  merit  of  recent  date.  Much  the  same  must  be  said  in 
regard  to  Italy,  the  latest  of  its  great  poets  and  dramatists,  Alfieri,  dying  in 
1803.  One  of  its  most  famous  nineteenth  century  writers  was  Ugo  Foscolo, 
whose  political  romance,  "  Letters  of.  Jacopo  Ortis,"  published  about  1800, 
became  immensely  popular.  His  finest  work  is  considered  to  be  "The 
Monuments,"  an  admirable  lyric  poem.  Count  Leopardi  also  attained  to 

high  eminence  as  a  poet,  and  Manzoni  as  a  novelist  and 
Writers  of  Italy  ,  ,  .  ,.  ^  ,  ,  T  „  fll  T  _,  .  0  .  ,,x 

dramatist,  his    'Betrothed    Lovers       (I  Promessi    Sposi   ), 

having  a  wide  reputation  as  a  vivid  picture  of  Italian  society  of  the  seven- 
teenth century.  We  shall  speak  of  only  one  other,  Silvio  Pellico,  whose 
work,  "  My  Prisons,"  descriptive  of  his  own  sufferings  in  Austrian  prisons,  is 
a  classic  of  its  kind  and  has  been  widely  translated. 

This  rapid  review  by  no  means  exhausts  the  meritorious  ninetenth 
century  authors  of  Europe,  whose  smaller  countries  possess  their  writers  of 
fame.  Hungary,  for  instance,  presents  to  us  the  prolific  novelist  Jokai,  whose 
works  are  read  in  all  civilized  lands.  Poland,  no  longer  a  country,  merely  a 
people,  has  its  famous  novelists,  chief  among  them  being  H.  Sienkiewiez, 
author  of  the  popular  "  Quo  Vadis."  The  same  may  be  said  of  the  Nether- 
lands  and  of  Switzerland,  to  the  latter  of  which  the  United  States  was 
other  Cele-  indebted  for  one  of  its  most  eloquent  scientific  writers,  the 
brated  celebrated  Louis  Agassiz.  Of  course,  the  literature  of  merit 

in  the  nineteenth  century  has  not  been  confined  to  Europe  and 
the  United  States.  Canada,  for  instance,  has  produced  able  writers,  and  the 
same  may  be  said  of  the  British  colonies  of  Australia  and  South  Africa, 
while  the  nations  of  Spanish-America  have  also  produced  noted  authors. 


LITERATURE  AND  ART  IN  THE  NINETEENTH  CENTURY         599 

We  have  said  in  the  beginning  of  this  chapter  that  literature  has  made 
no  recent  advance,  writers  of  conspicuous  merit  reaching  far  back  into  the 
past.   The  "  Iliad"  of  Homer,  for  example,  dates  back  some  three  thousand 
years,  and-Dante  belongs  to  an  early  era  of  mediaeval  Europe,    neritof  the 
Yet  this  assertion  is  true  only  in  a  general  sense,  that  of  the      Literature  of 
comparative  merit  of  authors  in  style  and  depth  of  thought,      thePast 
without  regard  to  the  character  of  their  works.      In  a  more  special  sense, 
that  of  the  distinctive  varieties  of  literature,  we  may  credit  the  nineteenth 
century   with   several   marked    steps    of    progress.      The   most    meritorious 
works  of   the  past  ages  were  in   the  fields  of  poetry,  drama,  philosophy, 
oratory,  and  other  branches  of  imaginative  and  metaphysical  thought.     The 
practice  of  accurate  observation  and  the  literature  arising  from  it  are  very 
largely  of  nineteenth  century  development.     The  literature  of  travel,   for 
instance,  is  confined  in  great  measure  to  the  past  century,  and  the  same  may 
be  said  of  that  of  science,  the  comparatively  few  scein'tific  treatises  of  the 
past  having  been  replaced  by  a  vast  multitude  of  scientific  works.     These  are 
in  great  measure  confined  to  records  of  scientific  observation  and  discovery. 
Theoretical  science,  while  very  active  in  the  past  century,  has    scientific  and 
yielded  no  works  of  higher  merit  than    those   of  such    older       Historical 
writers  as  Aristotle,  Copernicus,  Kepler,  Galileo,  Newton  and        lte 
others  of  the  older  worthies.      But  the  gathering  of  facts  has  been  enor- 
mous, and  great   libraries   of  works  of  science   to-day  replace   the   scanty 
volumes  of  a  century  ago. 

A  second  field  of  nineteenth  century  advance  is  in  the  domain  of  his- 
tory. The  history  of  the  past  is  largely  the  annals  of  kings  and  the  story 
of  wars.  Thucydides,  the  philosophical  historian  of  Greece,  had  few  suc- 
cessors before  the  century  in  question,  within  which  written  history  has 
greatly  broadened  its  scope,  reaching  to  heights  and  descending  to  depths 
unattempted  before.  Histories  of  the  people  have  for  the  first  time  been 
written,  and  the  outreach  of  historical  research  has  been  made  to  cover 
institutions,  manners  and  customs,  morals  and  superstitions,  and  a  thousand 
things  neglected  by  older  authors.  History,  in  short,  has  at  once  become 
philosophical  and  scientific,  efforts  being  made  in  th  .  latter  direction  to 
sweep  into  its  net  everything  relating  to  man,  and  in  the  former  to  discover 
the  .forces  underlying  the  downward  flow  through  time  of  the  human  race, 
and  to  trace  the  influences  which  have  given  rise  to  the  political,  social  and 
other  institutions  of  mankind. 

A  still  more  special  field  of  nineteenth  century  literary  development  is 
that  of  the  novel.  Imaginative  thought  has  existed  for  long  ages,  and 
fictitious  tales  are  as  old  as  civilization,  but  in  the  ancient  world  these  were 


6oo          LITERATURE  AND  ART  IN  THE  NINETEENTH  CENTURY 

couched  in  the  form  of  poetic  and  dramatic  literature,  of  fable,  fairy  tale,  and 
the  like.     The  first  steps  of  approach  towards  the  modern  novel  began  in 
late  Greek  times,  and  the  development  of  the  tale  continued  through  the 
The  Novel  and      Middle  Ages,  though  it  failed  to  reach  the  level  of  what  may 
its  Develop-      be  distinctively  called  the  novel  until  the  middle  of  the  eight- 
ment  eenth  century.     The  novel,  specially  so  called,  is  the  character 

tale,  the  development  of  human  personality  under  the  guise  of  fiction. 
This  was  scarcely  attempted  in  the  prose  works  of  the  past,  character  draw- 
ing being  then  confined  to  the  drama.  Abundant  works  of  romance  and 
adventure  were  written,  but  it  was  left  to  Richardson,  Fielding,  and  the 
contemporary  French  authors  to  produce  character  novels,  works  of  fiction 
peopled  by  individual  men  and  women,  instead  of  by  speaking  puppets, 
shows  of  man  in  the  abstract,  as  in  earlier  years. 

The  novel  attained  some  promising  development  in  the  latter  part  of 
the  eighteenth  century,  but  was  still  in  a  crude  state  at  the  opening  of  the 
nineteenth,  when  it  was  taken  up  by  the  powerful  hand  of  Scott,  whose 
remarkable  works  first  fairly  opened  this  new  domain  of  intellectual  enjoy- 
ment to  mankind.  Since  his  time  the  literature  of  the  novel  has  grown  stupen- 
dous in  quantity  and  remarkable  in  quality,  reaching  from  the  most  worthless 
and  degraded  forms  of  literary  production  to  the  highest  regions  of  human 
thought.  The  novel,  as  now  developed,  covers  almost  the  entire  domain  of 
intellectual  production,  embracing  works  of  adventure,  romance,  literal  and 
ideal  pictures  of  life,  humor,  philosophy,  religion,  science, — forming  indeed 
a  great  drag-net  that  sweeps  up  everything  that  comes  in  its  way. 

There  is  another  field  of  literary  production,  more  humble  but  not  less 
useful  than  those  named,  which  has  had  an  immense  development  in  the 
past  century,  that  of  the  school  text-book.  The  text-books  of  earlier  periods 
The  Text-Book  were  °f  tne  crudest  and  most  imperfect  character  as  compared 
and  Progress  with  the  multitude  of  works,  admirably  designed  to  smooth 
the  pathway  to  knowledge,  which  now  crowd  our  schools.  In 
connection  with  these  may  be  named  the  great  development  in  methods  of 
education,  and  the  spread  of  educational  facilities,  whose  effect  has  been 
such  that,  whereas  a  century  ago  education  was  confined  to  the  few,  it  now 
belongs  to  the  many,  and  ignorance  is  being  almost  driven  beyond  the 
borders  of  civilized  nations.  These  who  cannot  read  and  write  are  becom- 
ing a  degraded  minority,  while  a  multitude  of  colleges  and  universities  are 
yielding  the  advantages  of  the  higher  education  to  a  constantly  increasing 
multitude. 

By  no  means  the  least  among  the  triumphs  of  the  nineteenth  century 
has  been  the  enormous  development  of  book-making.  The  wide-spread 


LITERATURE  AND  ART  IN  THE  NINETEENTH  CENTURY         60 1 

education  of  the  people  in  recent    times    has  created   an  extraordinary  de- 
mand for  books,  there  being  a  thousand  readers  now  to  the  one  of  a  century 
or  two  ago.    This  demand  has  given  rise  to  as  extraordinary  a  supply,  which 
is  not  offered  in  books  alone,  but  in  periodicals  of  the  most  varied  character 
and  scope,  including  a  multitude  of  newspapers  almost  beyond  vast  increase  in 
comprehension.     The   United  States  alone,  in  addition  to  its      Books  and 
numerous  magazines,   issues  more  than    twenty  thousand  dif-      Newspapers 
ferent  newspapers,  of  which  the  aggregate  circulation  reaches  daily  far  up 
into  the  millions. 

The  demand  for  reading  matter  could  not  have  been  a  tenth  part  supplied 
with  the  facilities  of  a  century  ago,  but  man's  powers  in  this  direction  have 
steadily  increased.  From  the  intellectual  side,  the  advance  in  education  has 
provided  a  great  number  of  men  competent  to  cater  to  the  multitude  of 
readers,  as  authors  in  various  fields,  editors,  reporters,  etc.,  an  army  of  able 
men  and  women  being  enlisted  in  this  work.  From  the  mechanical  side, 
invention  has  served  a  similar  purpose  ;  the  paper-making  machinery,  with 
the  use  of  wood  as  raw  material,  the  mechanical  type-setters,  the  rapid  print- 
ing-presses, and  other  inventions  having  not  only  enormously  increased  the 
ability  to  produce  books  and  newspapers,  but  cheapened  them  to  such  an 
extent  that  they  are  now  within  the  reach  of  the  poorest.  A  century  ago 
such  a  thing  as  an  one-cent  newspaper  was  not  known.  Now  a  daily  that 
sells  for  more  than  a  cent  is  growing  rare.  A  century  ago  only  a  few  dic- 
tionaries, encyclopedias,  and  other  works  of  reference  were 
in  existence,  and  those  were  within  the  reach  only  of  the  well- 
to-do.  Now  works  of  this  kind  are  very  numerous,  and  they 
are  being  sold  so  cheaply  and  on  such  easy  terms  of  payment,  that  they  are 
widely  spread  through  the  families  of  artisans  and  farmers. 

In  truth,  the  number  of  books  possessed  by  wage-earners  and  agricul- 
turists to-day  is  very  much  greater  than  those  classes  could  possess  a 
century  ago,  and  the  character  of  these  works  has  improved  so  greatly  that 
they  serve  a  highly  useful  purpose  in  the  advancement  of  popular  education. 
In  addition  to  the  actual  ownership  of  books,  there  has  been  so  great  an 
increase  in  libraries,  and  such  an  improvement  in  methods  of  distribution, 
that  books  of  all  kinds  are  within  the  reach  of  the  poorest  of  city  people, 
and-  measures  are  being  taken  to  place  them  at  the  disposal  of  country 
people  as  well. 

At  the  opening  of  the  century  the  free  library  was  almost  unknown. 
At  its  close  there  was  not  a  large  city  in  the  United  States  without  its  free 
library,  and  many  .small  ones  were  similarly  provided.  In  truth,  the  great 
library  development  in  this  country  has  been  within  the  latter  half  of  the 


6oz  LITERATURE  AND  ART  IN  NINETEENTH  CENTURY 

century.  In  1850  there  were  only  eighty-one  libraries  in  the  United 
States  that  contained  over  5,000  volumes,  and  the  total  number  of  books 
in  them  was  less  than  a  million, a  much  smaller  number  than  could  be  found 
The  Develop-  *n  tne  libraries  of  Paris  alone.  No  single  American  library 
ment  of  at  that  date  contained  over  75,000  volumes.  In  1900  there 

were  more  than  a  dozen  with  over  100,000  volumes  each,  some 
of  these  possessing  considerably  over  half  a  million  books.  Thus  the  Boston 
Public  Library  contained  over  600,000  volumes,  while  a  still  larger  number 
was  housed  within  the  Congressional  Library  at  Washington,  in  what  is  the 
finest  and  most  magnificently  decorated  library  building  in  the  world,  with 
room  to  accommodate  as  many  as  4,000,000  volumes.  The  great  libraries 
of  the  United  States  are  far  surpassed  in  number  of  books  by  those  of  the 
leading  capitals  of  Europe,  and  particularly  by  that  of  Paris,  which  con- 
tains the  enormous  number  of  more  than  2,500,000  volumes. 

What  has  been  said  about  literature  can  scarcely  be  repeated  about  art. 
The  nineteenth  century  has  developed  no  new  species  of  fine  art,  and  in  its 

productions  in  sculpture,  paintingf,  architecture  and  music  has 
Art  in  Past  -  .  .  r  u  r 

Centuries         given   us  no  works  superior  to  those. of  the  earlier  centuries. 

Many  names  of  artists  of  genius  in  this  century  could  be 
given,  if  necessary,  but  as  these  names  indicate  nothing  original  in  style  or 
superior  in  merit  there  is  no  call  to  present  them.  The  advance  of  the 
nineteenth  century  has  been  rather  in  the  cheap  production  and  wide  dis- 
semination of  works  of  art  than  in  any  originality  of  conception. 

In  this  direction  the  greatest  advance  has  been  made  in  pictorial  art. 
Methods  of  engraving  have  been  very  greatly  cheapened,  and  the  photograph 
has  supplied  the  world  with  an  enormous  multitude  of  faithful  counterparts 
of  nature.     Among    the    many  ways  in  which   this   form  of  art  has  been 
applied,  one  of  the  most  useful  is  that  of  book  illustration.     The  ordinary 
"picture-book"  of  the  beginning  of  the  century  was  an  eye-sore  of  frightful 
Great  Progress    character,  its  only  alleviation  being  that  the  cost  of  illustra- 
in  Pictorial        tions  prevented  many  of  them  being  given.     The  "  half-tone  " 
Art  method  of  reproduction  of  photographs  has  made  a  wonder- 

ful development  in  this  direction,  pictures  that  faithfully  reproduce  in  black 
and  white  scenes  of  nature  or  works  of  art  being  now  made  with  such 
cheapness  that  book  illustrations  of  superior  character  have  grown  very 
abundant,  and  it  has  become  possible  to  illustrate  effectively  the  daily  news- 
paper, laying  before  us  in  pictorial  form  the  scenes  of  events  that  hap- 
pened only  a  few  hours  before. 


II 

a,- 


CHAPTER  XLI. 

The  American  Church  and  the  Spirit  of  Human 
Brotherhood. 

AS  the  century  draws  toward  its  end,  and  men  make  careful  survey  of 
the  work  it  has  wrought  in  the  many  and  varied  fields  of  human 
activity,  it  is  natural  that  each  observer  should  take  a  special  interest 
in  the  department  which  constitutes  his  specialty.  The  statesman  studies 
the  social  and  political  phenomena  and  forces  of  the  age.  The  scientist, 
the  educator,  the  manufacturer,  the  financier,  the  merchant,  find  in  their 
respective  spheres  problems  to  be  taken  in  hand  and  carefully  investigated, 
that  the  experience  of  the  past  may  become  wisdom  for  the  future.  While 
this  division  of  labor  may  tend  to  develop  one-sidedness  in  the  individual,  it 
provides  ample  material  for  the  true  student  of  history,  who,  by  collecting 
the  data  furnished  by  these  various  investigators,  may  make 
wide  and  wise  generalizations,  and  thus  contribute  to  a  more  Divis«onof 

o  Labor 

complete  study  of  human  nature   and   human  history.     The 
increase  of  general  interest  among  special  observers  and  students  will  ensure 
in    due  time  co-operation,    increased    intelligence,  and    enthusiasm    in   the 
promotion  of  the  highest  civilization. 

As  the  procession  of  the  years  which  form  the  most  wonderful  century 
of  human  history  closes  its  solemn  march,  those  who  look  on  time  as 
deriving  its  chief  worth  from  its  relations  to  eternity,  and  who  estimate 
civilization  as  it  bears  upon  the  immortal  character  of  man,  will  of  necessity 
judge  a  century  by  its  religious  quality  and  results,  asking :  What  place  has 
religion  held,  what  work  has  it  wrought,  what  errors  have  weakened  it,  what 
are  the  tendencies  which  now  dominate, it,  what  are  the  opportunities  which 
open  before  it  ? 

The  American- type  of  Christianity  is  in  advance  of  all  other  Christian 
types,    since    it   grows   among    and    permeates   political  and   American 
social  ideas  and  institutions  which  give  it  larger  and  fuller  oppor-      Type  of 
tunities    than    it    has    ever   before    known,    opportunities    to      Christianity 
develop  humanity  on  all  sides  and  in  all  relations.     The  American  Church 
is  made  up  of.  all  individuals,  classes,  societies,  and  agencies  which  bear  the 
Christian  name  or  hold  the  Christian  thought.     It  is  not  a  "  State  Church." 

605 


605  THE  AMERICAN  CHURCH 

It  is  not  a  "  union  Church" — constituted  by  the  formal  unification  of  diverse 
sects  or  denominations.  It  embraces  all  believers  (and  in  a  sense  all 
citizens)  without  visible  consolidation  ;  it  favors  all  without  legislative 
interference  ;  it  gives  freedom  to  all  without  partiality  or  discrimination. 

The  distinguishing  feature  of  American  life — which  makes  what  we 
call  "  freedom  "  mean  more  and  promise  more  than  does  the  civil,  political, 
and  religious  freedom  of  any  other  land,  and  which  therefore  gives  a  dis- 
tinctive character  to  the  American  Church — is  that  the  liberty  of  the 
individual  has  large  and  unhampered  opportunity  for  growth  and  action. 
Individual  liberty  here  is  actual  liberty;  unhindered  by  governmental  pro- 
visions for  privileged  classes,  who,  by  the  accident  of  birth,  leap  into  place 
and  prerogative  without  merit  of  their  own,  and  whose  unearned  advantage 
is  detrimental  to  the  well-being  of  the  multitude.  It  is  liberty  which  carries 
with  it  opportunity, — the  liberty  of  the  lowest  in  the  nation  to  reach  the 
rank  of  the  highest;  of  the  poorest  to  become  the  richest;  of  the  most 
ignorant  to  become  the  most  learned  ;  of  the  most  despised  to  become  the 
Distinguishing  most  honored  ;  the  liberty  of  every  man  to  know  all  that  he 
Feature  of  can  know,  to  be  all  that  he  can  be,  and  do  all  that  he  pleases 
American  Life  tQ  ^  SQ  jong  ag  ^  ^QQS  nQt  mterfere  wjth  tne  right  of  any 

other  man  to  know  all  that  he  can  know,  to  be  all  that  he  can  be,  and  to  do 
all  that  he  pleases  to  do.  It  is  the  liberty  among  brothers,  who,  with  all  the 
prerogatives  of  individuality,  need  not  forget  the  brotherhood  of  man,  and 
who  have  every  inducement  not  merely  to  guarantee  to  each  other  this 
regal  right  of  full  personal  development,  but  who  easily  learn  how  to  render 
mutual  aid — every  man  helping  every  other  man  to  know  all  that  he  can 
know,  be  all  that  he  can  be,  and  to  do  all  that  Jie  pleases  to  do. 

This,  then,  is  the  ideal  of  American  civilization  :  A  nation  of  equals, 
who  are  brothers.  This  is  the  doctrine  of  the  closing  American  century ; 
the  root  of  the  goodly  tree  that  covers  such  ample  area  with  its  fruitful  and 
bending  branches  ;  the  vine  which  the  right  hand  of  the  Lord  our  God  hath 
planted  ;  this  the  lesson  running  along  the  bars  and  shining  out  of  the  stars 
of  our  national  flag.  It  is  necessary  that  the  race  experiment  with  this  great 
idea  of  freedom  and  fraternity.  It  is  an  idea  that  sounds  well  in  rhyme  and 
song,  but  it  must  stand  the  test  of  practice  as  well ;  and  is  it  capable  of  this? 
May  this  large  Gospel  of  the  Christ  be  realized  by  a  nation,  and  this  nation 
become  in  spirit  and  fact  a  church  ?  This  is  the  glorious  thought  running 
through  the  civilization  of  our  century,  and  this  we  believe  to  be  the  pur- 
pose of  the  God  of  nations. 

The  distinctive  feature  of  the  nineteenth  century  in  America  is  the 
struggle  for  the  recognition  of  these  two  noble  ideas :  The  freedom  of  the 


THE  AMERICAN  CHURCH  607 

individual  and  the  brotherhood  of  the  race.  And  this  thought  is  thoroughly 
religious.  It  is  pre-eminently  Christian.  It  was  taught,  enforced,  and  illus- 
trated by  the  Nazarene.  It  is  asserting  itself  in  our  civilization.  The  work 
is  now  going  on.  It  has  not  gone  far,  but  it  is  bound  to  go  on  to  the  blessed 
end.  The  leaven  is  working  every  day.  We  are  in  the  midst  of  the  great 
experiment. 

The  American  Church  is  not  a  State  Church.  It  is  supported  not  by 
law,  but  by  love.  No  large  subsidies  corrupt  it.  No  political  complications 
weaken  it.  Church  and  State  serve  each  other  best  when  the  only  bond  be- 
tween them  is  one  of  individual  conviction  and  mutual  conn-  Development 
dence.  The  beginnings  of  the  Republic  were  made  by  religi-  of  theAmerU 
ous  men,  who  organized  religious  communities.  They  sought  can  Church 
our  shores  to  secure  religious  liberty.  Some  of  them  may  have  been  nar- 
row, but  they  were  true  and  brave.  Some  of  the  fetters  that  bound  them 
had  been  severed,  but  some  still  remained.  They  had  not  yet  conceived  the 
idea  of  an  emancipated  and  responsible  individuality.  Protestants  fled  from 
the  severities  of  Roman  rule,  and  Romans  from  the  oppressions  of  Protest- 
ants. And  it  took  a  long  time  for  Protestants  to  become  free.  But  the 
founders  and  fathers  of  the  Republic  were  religious  and  God-fearing  men, 
They  were  simply  pupils  ("primary  pupils  "  at  that)  in  the  school  of  human 
rights  and  human  brotherhood.  The  lessons  were  long  and  hard.  It  has 
taken  more  than  a  century  to  get  half  through  the  "  first  reader,"  and  there 
is  ample  work  foY  the  century  ahead,  but  as  a  people  we  are  coming  to  see 
the  life  of  the  Church  in  the  aims  and  order  of  the  State,  and  to  learn  that 
God  is  in  all  history,  that  His  claims  upon  men  extend  to  all  social  relations, 
sanctifying  all  secular  and  political  life,  and  embracing  charity,  sympathy, 
and  justice  in  the  minutest  details  of  life,  as  well  as  awe,  reverence  and 
worship. 

Simultaneously  with  the  rise  of  the  Republic  began  the  great  Sunday- 
school  system,  which  went  everywhere  with  the  open  Bible  and  the  living 
teacher,  with  inspiring:  Christian  sonp-s,  attractive  books  for 

The  Sunday- 
week-day  reading,  juvenile   pictorial  papers,  social  gatherings,     schoo|  system 

and  the  stimulating  power  of  friendly  fellowship  in  religious 
life.  It  brought  the  people  together,  old  and  young,  learned  and  unlearned, 
rich  and  poor.  It  did  more  to  "  level  up  "  society  than  any  other  agency  in 
the  Republic.  It  made  the  adult  who  taught  susceptible  and  affectionate 
childhood  a  better  citizen.  It  prepared  the  children  to  be  wiser,  more  con- 
scientious, and  more  loyal  citizens  in  the  next  generation.  In  the  widely  ex- 
tended Methodist  revival,  and  in  the  all-embracing  Sunday-school  movement, 
we  *ee  the  hand  of  God  fashioning  the  Nation  and  the  Church,  that  they 


6o3  THE  AMERICAN  CHURCH 

might  be  one  in  aim  and  spirit,  and  that  through  them  might  be  promoted 
liberty,  equality,  and  fraternity. 

The  various  branches   or  denominations  of  the  American  Church  are 
influenced  by  these    ruling  ideas   of  the  century  ;  the  freedom    and    unre- 
stricted opportunity  of  the  individual  and  the   spirit  of  generous  fraternity. 
The  old  warfare  between  the  Protestant  denominations  has  virtually  ceased. 
Co-operation  in  religious  and  reformatory  effort — the  Young  Men's  Christian 
Association,   the  Women's  Christian  Temperance  Union,   the 
Associations     Young    People's    Society  of  Christian    Endeavor,    the    Inter- 
national Lesson  system,  the  State  and  International   Sunday- 
school  Conventions,  the  Evangelical  Alliance,  the    Chautauqua  Assemblies, 
the  exchange  of  pulpits,  the  frequent  union  revival  meetings  held  by  repre- 
sentative evangelists,  the  ease  with  which  ministers  pass  from  one  denomina- 
tion   to    another,    the  warm,   personal    friendships    between    representative 
leaders  of  the  several  Churches,  the  growth  and  enrichment  of  non-denom- 
inational  periodical   literature — these   are   some  of  the   signs  of  the  larger 
thought  now  controlling  our  people. 

The  American   Church,  which  imposes  no  creed  but  the  creed  of  the 
Republic,   which    knows   no    lines   of    division — sectarian,  political,    or    ter- 
Th   Valu   of        ritorial — but  which  seeks  the  well-being  of  the  individual  and 
Religion  in        the  fellowship  of  all  true  citizens,  will  soon  wield  an  immense 
Politics  influence   in   matters  political.      It  will  discuss    great    ethical 

questions  ;  it  will  carry  conscientiousness  and  independence  into  political 
action  ;  it  will  dissipate  the  weak  heresy  that  Christians  are  not  to  take  part 
in  national  affairs.  In  the  days  of  Christ  and  the  Apostles,  the  governing 
powers,  the  rulers  of  this  world,  were  beyond  the  touch  and  control  of  the 
people.  It  was  for  them  humbly  to  serve  and  uncomplainingly  to  suffer. 
But  now  all  this  has  been  changed.  The  people  to-day  stand  where  Caesar 
used  to  stand;  and  to  be  a  thoughtful,  conscientious,  active,  consistent 
politician,  is  to  be  doing  God's  service.  The  church  member  who  neglects 
political  duty  is  guilty  of  sin  against  both  God  and  the  neighbor.  The 
power  of  the  people  will  be  felt  for  good  when  the  people  begin  to  know 
and  to  defend  the  true  and  the  good;  They  have  during  the  century  ex- 
pressed the  purpose  of  the  American  Church  on  the  subject  of  slavery.  At 
its  declaration  the  shackles  have  fallen.  They  pronounced  against  and 
destroyed  the  Louisiana  Lottery.  Through  the  press,  the  ballot,  and  the 
authority  of  law,  the  moral  force  of  the  nation  expresses  itself  and  the 
base  conspirators  surrender.  So  must  it  be  with  the  saloon,  and  with  all 
political  evil.  If  politicians  carry  moral  questions  into  the  political  arena, 
the  pulpit  and  all  other  agencies  of  the  church  must  go  with  the  question 


THE  AMERICAN  CHURCH  609 

before  the  people,  and  lead  them  to  consider  it  no  less  from  the  moral  than 
from  the  political  point  of  view. 

Aside  from  the  development  of  the  Christian  religion  as  distinctively 
displayed  in  the  United  States,  its  progress  in  the  world  at  large  has  been 
great  and  encouraging.  Particularly  has  the  spirit  of  sectarianism,  strongly 
manifested  a  century  ago,  decreased  in  force  and  fanaticism  diminished, 
while  the  sentiment  of  union  and  brotherhood  between  churches  of  different 
sects  has  developed  to  a  highly  encouraging  degree. 

Outside  of  Christendom  the  influences  of  the  religion  of  Christ 
have  been  widely  spread  by  the  active  and  enthusiastic  labors  of  mis- 
sionaries, who  have  carried  the  lessons  of  the  Gospels  to  all  lands,  and 
established  Christianity  among  numerous  tribes  formerly  in  the  lowest  stages 
of  heathenism  and  idolatry.  The  success  of  these  devoted  men  has  been, 
much  less  among  peoples  possessed  of  a  religious  faith  of  a  higher  grade,  as 
the  Mohammedans,  Hindoos,  and  Chinese,  and  perhaps  the 
most  important  results  of  their  labors  everywhere  have  been  Mlssl°nary 

t  r         i  •  ,..,...  Activity 

those  ot    education  and   civilization,    necessary  preliminaries, 
in  the  case  of  ignorant  and  undeveloped  peoples,  to  a  just  comprehension 
of    the  principles   of    Christianity  and   the    inculcation  of  advanced  moral 
sentiments  and  the  high  standard  of  the  Golden  Rule. 

The  religious  history  of  the  century  does  not  end  with  the  relation  of 
the  progress  of  Christianity.  There  has  indeed  been  some  degree  of 
reaction  of  heathenism  upon  Christian  countries,  particularly  in  the  case  of 
Buddhism,  whose  doctrines  have  made  their  way  into  Europe  and  America, 
and  gained  there  a  considerable  body  of  adherents.  This  infiltration  from 
without  has  developed  into  what  is  known  as  the  Theosophical 
Society,  which  claims  over  100,000  members  in  the  United 
States  alone.  In  addition  may  be  named  various  new  religious 
outgrowths  of  home  origin,  including  the  Mormons,  the  Spiritualists,  the 
Christian  Scientists,  and  others  of  less  prominence.  Similar  new  sects  have 
arisen  in  Mohammedan  and  Hindoo  countries,  such  as  the  Babists  in  Persia 
and  the  Brahmo  Somaj  in  India,  these  latter  being  distinctive  reforms  on 
the  more  ancient  religious  creeds  and  practices. 

What  has  been  said  above  does  not  show  the  full  extent  of  the  religious 
movement  within  the  century.  There  has  been  an  active  spirit  of  progress 
within  the  lines  of  denominational  religion  itself,  and  liberal  sentiment  has 
made  a  marked  and  promising  advance.  The  former  insistance  upon  creed 
as  the  essential  factor  in  religion  has  greatly  weakened  in  favor  of  its  ethical 
element,  and  the  supremacy  of  conduct  over  creed  is  openly  taught.  Again, 
the  old  religion  of  fear  is  giving  way  before  a  new  religion  of  love.  The 


6 io  THE  AMERICAN  CHURCH 

doctrine  of  future  punishment,  and  the  attempt  to  swell  the  lists  of  church 
members  by   insistence  upon  the  horrors  of   Hades,   are  rarely    heard    in 
The  Religion  of    the  pulpits  of  to-day,  the  old  Hell-fire  conception  having  be- 
Fear  and  of       come  at  once  too  preposterous  and  too  alien  to  the  character  of 
Love  the  All  Wise  and  All  Good  to  be  any  longer  entertained  except 

by  the  most  ignorant  of  pulpit  orators.  In  truth,  the  doctrines  of  the 
modern  pulpit  are  rapidly  rising  towards  the  level  of  Christ's  elevated  teach- 
ings, and  inculcating  love  and  human  brotherhood  as  the  essential  elements 
of  the  Christian  faith. 

The  growing  spirit  of  liberalism  has  given  rise  to  a  large  body  of 
moralists  who  repudiate  the  idea  that  faith  in  a  creed  is  essential  to  salva- 
tion, and  claim  that  moral  conduct  is  the  sole  religious  element  that  is 
likely  to  influence  the  future  destiny  of  mankind.  Persons  of  this  class 
are  specially  numerous  in  the  ranks  of  the  scientists,  whose  habit  of  close 
observation,  and  rigorous  demand  for  established  facts  as  the 
The  Spirit  of  basis  of  all  theoretical  views,  unfit  them  for  acceptance  of  any 

Liberalism  ...  .    .  , 

doctrines  insusceptible  of  rigid  demonstration  from  the  scien- 
tific standpoint.  This  requirement  of  hard  and  fast  evidence,  appealing 
directly  to  the  senses,  and  discarding  all  reliance  upon  the  ideal  or  upon  the 
broad  consensus  of  ancient  belief,  has  no  doubt  been  carried  too  far,  and 
has  yielded  a  narrowness  of  outlook  which  will  be  replaced  by  broader  con- 
ceptions as  psychological  science  develops.  That  it  exists  now,  however, 
cannot  be  denied,  and  its  adherents  constitute  a  very  large  and  influential 
body.  Yet  it  must  be  said  that  science  and  religion,  for  a  time  widely 
separated,  are  growing  together,  and  that  in  all  probability  the  final  outcome 
of  modern  thought  and  research  will  be  an  alliance  between  these  two  great 
forces,  a  religion  which  science  can  accept  and  a  science  in  full  accord  with 
religious  views  and  principles. 

If  we  now  turn  aside  from  religion  as  a  whole,  and  consider  only  its 
ethical  side,  it  is  to  find  an  immense  advance  within  the  nineteenth  century. 
The  standard  of  right  conduct  may  not  have  risen,  but  the 
Tl|n  EthkTent    sentiment  of  human  sympathy  and  of  the  brotherhood  of  man- 
kind   has   very  greatly  developed,    and    human    charity  and 
fellow  feeling,  a  century  or  two  ago   largely  confined  within  the  limits  of  a 
nation  or  a  city,  are  now  coming  to  embrace  all  mankind. 

There  has  been  a  great  'amelioration  in  manners  and  customs  within 
the  century,  a  great  decrease  in  barbarity  and  cruelty.  A  few  examples  will 
suffice  to  point  this  out.  The  barbarous  practices  in  regard  to  child  labor  which 
existed  in  1800  and  much  later  have  often  been  depicted  in  lurid  colors,  the 
selfish  greed  of  employers  giving  rise  to  a  "  massacre  of  the  innocents  "  as 


THE  AMERICAN  CHURCH  611 

declared  and  even  more  cruel  in  its  methods  than  that  of  the  time  of  Christ. 
Thousands  of  children  in  the  days  of  our  grandfathers  were 
simply  tortured  to  death  in  dark  and  dank  mines  or  gloomy 
and  unhealthy  workshops,  at  an  age  when  they  should  have 
been  alternating  between  the  useful  confinement  of  the  schools  and  the 
healthful  freedom  of  the  playgrounds  and  the  fields.  This  state  of  affairs 
happily  no  longer  exists,  and  in  the  present  condition  of  public  sentiment 
could  not  be  reproduced.  The  world  has  grown  decidedly  beyond  the  level 
of  such  heartless  cruelty. 

The  development  of  sympathy  has  not  confined  itself  to  a  redress  of 
the  wrongs  of  children,  but  has  made  itself  manifest  in  attention  to  the 
wrongs  of  workmen  as  a  whole,  factory  inspection  having  put  an  end  to 
many  unhealthful  and  oppressive  conditions  formerly  prevailing,  and  saved 
thousands  of  workmen  from  being  poisoned  in  the  midst  of  their  daily 
labors.  And  not  only  human  beings,  but  dumb  animals,  have  been  reached 
by  the  awakened  sympathy  of  modern  communities.  A  century  ago  the 
noble  and  patient  horse  was  frequently  treated  with  the  preventionof 
utmost  brutality,  without  a  hand  or  a  voice  being  raised  in  its  Cruelty  to 
defence.  This  barbarity  was  accepted  as  a  part  of  the  estab-  Anima|s 
lished  and  necessary  order  of  things,  and  dismissed  with  a  shrug  or  perhaps 
without  a  thought.  To-day,  in  the  more  enlightened  nations,  this  state  of 
things  has  ceased  to  exist.  Societies  for  the  prevention  of  cruelty  to 
animals  keep  a  close  watch  upon  the  brutally  inclined,  and  have  almost 
put  an  end  to  cruel  practices  which  formerly  prevailed  without  a  word  of  pro- 
test, domestic  animals  being  now  protected  as  carefully  as  human  beings. 

In  no  direction  did  the  lack  of  kindly  sentiment  of  a  century  ago 
show  itself  more  decisively  than  in  prison  management.  We  do  not  mean 
to  say  that  philanthropy  did  not  then  exist,  but  that  it  was  far  from  being 
the  active  sentiment  it  has  become  to-day,  and  was  largely  without  effect 
upon  legislators  ;  the  condition  alike  of  convicted  criminals  ^f  debtors,  and 
of  those  held  for  trial  being  in  many  cases  almost  indescrii,  'y  horrible. 
The  first  effective  movement  towards  prison  reform  was  made  by  John 
Howard,  in  the  latter  part  of  the  eighteenth  century,  but 

..   /  ,    Prison  Reform 

public    sentiment    was    so    dulled    towards    the    condition    ot 
prisoners  that  the  horrors  painted  out  by  him  were  in  great  measure  per- 
mitted to  continue.     The  legislators  of  England  could  not  be  awakened  to 
any  active  interest  in  the  inmates  of  the  gaols. 

When  Elizabeth  Fry  made  her  first  visit  to  the  female  department  of 
Newgate,  the  city  prison  of  London,  in  1813,  she  found  a  state  of  affairs 
whose  horrors,  words  are  weak  to  convey.  The  women  inmates  "  were  limited 


612  THE  AMERICAN  CHURCH 

to  two  wards  and  two  yards,  an  area  of  about  one  hundred  and  ninety-two 
superficial  yards  in  all,  into  which  some  three  hundred  women  with  their  chil- 
dren were  crowded,  all  classes  together,  felon  and  misdemeanant,  tried  and 
untried  ;  the  whole  under  the  superintendence  of  an  old  man  and  his  son. 
They  slept  on  the  floor,  without  so  much  as  a  mat  for  bedding.  Many  were 
very  nearly  naked,  others  were  in  rags  ;  some  desperate  from 
want  °^  f°O(i  some  savage  from  drink,  foul  in  language,  still 
more  recklessly  depraved  in  their  habits  and  behavior.  Every- 
thing was  filthy  beyond  description.  The  smell  of  the  place  was  quite  dis- 
gusting." 

The  condition  of  affairs  on  the  men's  side,  unless  they  were  able  to  pay 
for  better  accommodations,  was  similar  to  that  here  described.  Their  treat- 
ment, indeed,  depended  largely  on  the  amount  of  money  they  could  pay  the 
jail  officials  and  they  were  fleeced  without  mercy.  The  practice  of  fettering 
them  was  so  common  that  nearly  every  one  wore  irons,  even  the  untried 
being  often  laden  with  fetters,  while  their  limbs  were  chafed  into  sores  by 
the  weight  of  these  useless  instruments  of  torture. 

The  report  of  the  Prison  Discipline  Improvement  Society,  at  as  late  a 
date  as  1818,  shows  the  existence  of  an  almost  incredible  state  of  things  in 
English  prisons.  Many  of  the  gaols  were  in  the  most  deplorable  condition, 
and  crowded  far  beyond  their  powers  of  accommodation.  All  prisoners 
passed  their  time  in  absolute  idleness,  or  spent  it  in  gambling  and  loose 
conversation.  The  debtors  were  crowded  into  the  narrowest  quarters  con- 
ceivable. Twenty  men  were  forced  to  sleep  in  a  space  twenty  feet  long 
by  six  wide — accomplishing  this  seemingly  impossible  feat  by  "sleeping 
edgeways."  In  the  morning  the  stench  and  heat  were  something  terrible  ; 
"the  smell  on  first  opening  the  door  was  enough  to  knock  down  a  horse." 
The  jail  hospitals  were  filled  with  infectious  cases,  and  in  one  room,  seven 
feet  by  nine,  with  closed  windows,  where  a  boy  lay  ill  with  fever,  three  other 
prisoners,  at  first  perfectly  healthy,  were  found  lodged.  It  is  no  wonder 
that  the  deadly  jail  fever  raged  as  an  epidemic  in  such  pest  holes,  and  even 
communicated  itself  to  the  judges  before  whom  these  wretches  were  brought 
for  trial. 

We  have  by  no  means  told  all  the  horrors  of  prison  life  at  that  period, ' 
but  will  desist  from  giving  any  more  of  its  painful  details.     It  need  scarcely 
be  said  that  an  utterly  different  state  of  affairs  now  exists  in 
a^  civilized  lands,  prisoners  being  treated  as  human  beings  in- 
stead of  wild  beasts  ;  and  so  warm  is  the  feeling  of  public  sym- 
pathy with  the  wretched  that  any  of  the  horrors  here  depicted  would  raise 
a  universal   cry   of   deprecation    in    the   land.     Kindness  is   now  the  ruk 


THE  AMERICAN  CHURCH  613 

in  dealing  with  criminals  of  all  grades,  and  every  effort  is  made  to  supply 
them  with  employment,  and  to  attend  to  the  requirements  of  comfort  and 
cleanliness.     Prisons  are   rapidly  developing  into  schools  for  reform,  and 
with    remarkable    success   where    systems    of   this    kind    have    been    fully 
developed. 

The  laws  of  a  century  ago  were  barbarous  almost  beyond  conception 
at  the  present  day.     Capital  punishment,  now  confined  to  murderers,  was 
then  inflicted  for  some  twenty-five  separate  crimes,  including  forgery,  coining, 
sheep  or  horse  stealing,  burglary,  cutting  and  maiming,  rick-burning,  robbery, 
arson,  etc.     There  were,  in  fact  some  two  hundred  capital  crimes  on  the 
statute  books,  but  most  of  these  had  grown  obsolete.    Yet  such 
a  minor  offence  as  stealing  in  a  dwelling  house  was  a  crime     ^ent  inTsoo" 
punishable  by  hanging,  and  men  were  occasionally  executed  on 
the  gallows  for  a  small  theft  that  would  now  subject  them  to   only  a  few 
months  of  imprisonment.      It  was  not  until  after  1830  that  an  amelioration 
in  these  severe  laws  began,  and  with  such  effect  that  the  number  of  persons 
sentenced  to  death  in  England  decreased  from  458  in    1837  to  fifty-six  in 
1839.     After  1841  the  death   penalty  was  inflicted  only  for  murder,  though 
seven  other  crimes  remained  capital  by  law  until  1861. 

The  practice  of  public  executions  was  another  barbarous  feature  of  the 
code,  and  the  scenes  around  the  gallows  at  Tyburn,  on  the  occasion  of  the 
execution  of  any  criminal  of  note,  were  so  disgraceful    that   it  seems   in- 
credible that  they  could  exist  in   any  civilized    land.     Other 

..  ...          .      ,  .  11-  i  ..  •  •  f      i         Public  Execu- 

relics  of   the    dark    ages  were   the    public   exhibition  ot    the      tlons 

bodies  of  the  executed,  and  hanging  in  chains  on  a  gibbet,  a 
practice  in  vogue  until  1832.      In  one  case  mentioned,  at  that  late  date,  "a 
sort   of  fair  was  held,  gaming  tables  were  set   up,  and   cards  were  played 
under  the  gibbet,  to  the  disturbance  of  the  public  peace  and  the  annoyance 
of  all  decent  people." 

It  will  suffice  to  say  here  that  this  state  of  affairs  has  been  reformed 
out  of  existence.  Executions,  restricted  solely  to  murderers,  now  take  place 
wholly  in  private,  and  so  great  is  the  public  desire  to  prevent  suffering  to 
the  condemned  that  the  first  electrical  execution  in  New  York  raised  a  cry 
of  horror  when  it  was  announced  that  life  did  not  cease  within  the  few 
seconds  expected,  but  that  the  power  of  sensation  continued  for  perhaps  a 
minute.  In  truth,  in  this  instance,  there  was  something  of  a  hyper-sensibility 
manifested,  but  one  of  a  kind  creditable  to  human  nature. 

The  development  of  the  spirit  of  sympathy  with  the  poor  and  suffering 
is  by  no  means  confined  to  the  instances  stated,  but  has  gained  an  extra- 
ordinary extension.  The  rapid  progress  of  railroad  and  steamship  com- 

34 


614  THE  AMERICAN  CHURCH 

municat  on,  the  enormous  increase  in  travel,  and  the  bringing  of  the  ends  of 
the  earth  together  by  means  of  the  telegraph  wire  have  made  of  all  mankind 

one  great  family,  and  the  instinct  of  charity  and  benevolence 
TheSpintof  reaches  to  the  most  remote  quarters  of  the  globe.  Notable 

results  of  this  feeling,  of  recent  date,  have  been  the  efforts  to 
ameliorate  the  suffering  in  India  during  the  late  famine,  the  war  instigated 
by  sympathy  in  Cuba,  the  earnest  efforts  to  supply  food  to  the  starving  in 
Porto  Rico,  and  the  fervent  feeling  aroused  in  favor  of  the  unjustly  punished 
Dreyfus. 

In  regard  to  charity  at  home,  the  instances  of  it  are  voluminous  beyond 
our  power  to  record.  Hospitals,  asylums,  institutions  of  benevolence 
of  the  most  varied  character,  have  been  everywhere  instituted,  alike  in  Europe 
and  America,  mainly  through  public  donations,  and  there  is  no  form  of 

want  or  suffering  which  is  not  met  by  some  attempt  at  allevia- 

The  Growth  of     tion       Homes  for  the  afflicted  of  every  kind  are  rising:  in  all 
Charity  .  .  *  . 

directions  ;  charity  is  organized  and  active  to  a  degree  never 

before  seen  ;  the  bettering  of  the  condition  of  the  poor  by  improved  resi- 
dences, methods  of  recreation  and  instruction,  and  other  acts  of  aid  and 
kindness  is  actively  going  on,  and  in  a  hundred  ways  benevolence  is  striving 
to  lift  man  from  want  and  degradation  into  comfort  and  advanced  conditions. 
What  is  known  as  altruism,  the  sentiment  of  fellow  feeling,  is, 
in  part,  coming  to  be  one  of  the  active  conditions  of  the  age,  and 
is  among  the  most  promising  signs  of  the  times.  Selfishness,  indeed,  is 
abundantly  prevalent  still,  yet  altruistic  feeling  is  rapidly  on  the  increase,  and 
gifts  for  benevolent  purposes  of  all  kinds  are  becoming  remarkably  abundant. 
Hundreds  of  instances  might  be  named,  but  we  shall  confine  ourselves  to 
one,  Andrew  Carnegie's  wise  and  kindly  devotion  of  the  income  of  his  great 
fortune  to  the  founding  of  public  libraries,  than  which  nothing  could  serve 
better  to  bring  man  into  a  condition  of  mind  which  will  prevent  him  from 
becoming  a  willing  object  of  charity. 

Certainly  the  Golden  Rule  is  bearing  fruit  in  these  later  days,  and  men 
are  widely  doing  unto  others  as  they  would  wish  to  be  done  by.      The  old, 
An  Advanced    narrow  idea  of  patriotism  is  being  replaced  by  a  growing  senti- 
Spiritof        ment  of  the  brotherhood  of  all  mankind,  and  altruism   is  mak- 
Benevolence  -  Upwarcj  through   the  dense  mass  of  selfism  which 


has  so  long  dominated  the  world.  It  is  still  only  in  its  pioneer  stage,  but  the 
indications  of  its  growth  are  encouraging,  and  we  may  look  forward  with 
hope  to  a  day  in  which  it  will  become  the  leading  influence  in  the  social 
worid,  and  selfishness  lose  its  long  and  strong  hold  upon  the  heart  of  man. 


HZNRY    DRUMMOND 


REV.   JOHN   WATSON    (IAN    MACLAKEN) 


CHARLES   HADDON   SPURGEON  FREDERICK  W.    FARRAR 

WRITERS  OF  RELIGIOUS   CLASSICS 


CHAPTER  XLII. 
The  Dawn  of  the  Twentieth  Century. 

THE  nineteenth  century  saw  the  modern  world  in  its  making.     At  its 
opening  the    long    mediaeval    era  was  just    ceasing    to    exist.     The 
French  Revolution  had  brought  it  to  a  sudden  and  violent  termina- 
tion in  France,  and  had  sown    the   seeds  of  the   new  ideas  of  equality  and 
fraternity  and  the  rights  of  man  widely  over  Europe.      In  the  new  world  a 
great   modern   nation,  instinct  with  the  most   advanced  ideas    The  Nineteenth 
of  liberty  and  justice,  had  just  sprung  into  existence,  a  nation      Century  and 

without    royalty    or    nobility,    and    whose    leaders   were     the      the  Era  of 

.  .    ..          ,  ,     ,  Medievalism 

chosen  servants,  not  the  privileged  masters,  or  the  people. 

This  grand  political  revolution,  with  which  the  century  began,  was 
paralleled  with  as  notable  an  industrial  revolution.  The  invention  of  the 
steam  engine  had  brought  to  an  end  the  mediaeval  system  of  industry. 
The  old,  individual,  household  era  of  labor,  where  every  man  could  be  his 
own  master  and  supply  his  own  capital,  ceased  to  exist ;  costly  labor-saving 
machines,  needing  large  accumulations  of  capital,  came  into  use ;  great 
buildings  and  the  centralization  of  labor  became  necessary ;  and  the  factory 
system,  which  has  had  such  an  immense  development  in  the  nineteenth 
century,  began  its  remarkable  career. 

With  the  opening  and   progress  of  the  nineteenth  century  came  other 
conditions  of  prime  importance.      Invention,  which  first  became  active  near 
the    end  of  the  preceding    century,   now   flourished    until   its    Tne  Centur  .s 
results  seemed  rather  the  work  of  magic  than  of  plain  human      Wonderful 

thought  and  work.     Science,  which  already  had  made  some      stages  of 
,  r     /       V   •  11  Progress 

notable  triumphs,  gained  an  undreamed-ot  activity  and  hun- 
dreds of  the  deep  secrets  of  the  universe  were  unfolded.  Discovery  and 
exploration  achieved  surprising  results.  At  the  beginning  of  the  century 
half  the  world  was  unknown.  At  its  end  only  the  frozen  realms  of  the 
poles  remained  unexplored,  and  civilization  was  making  its  way  into  a  hun- 
dred haunts  of  ancient  savagery.  Literature  and  art,  while  they  can  claim 
no  works  of  acknowledged  superiority  as  compared  with  the  master  pieces 
of  past  centuries,  have  displayed  a  remarkable  activity,  and  the  number  of 
meritorious  books  now  annually  issued  is  one  of  the  most  extraordinary 

events  of  the  century. 

617 


6r8  THE  DAWN  OF  THE  TWENTIETH  CENTURY 

Not  less  important  is  the  immense  progress  in  education.  The  school- 
house  forms  the  great  mile-post  on  the  highway  of  progress.  It  is  every- 
where in  evidence.  Free  schools  extend  throughout  the  civilized  world, 
and  reach  upward  to  a  plane  far  beyond  the  highest  level  of  public  educa- 
tion a  century  ago,  linking  the  common  school  with  the  college,  and  forming 
a  direct  stepping  stone  to  university  education,  which  has  widened  out 
with  similar  activity.  In  methods  of  education  a  marked 
Progressm  advance  has  been  made,  while  the  text-books  of  to-day  are 

Education  * 

almost  infinitely  superior  to  those  of  the  earlier  period.      And 

education  is  turning  its  attention  in  a  highly  encouraging  degree  towards 
practical  subjects  and  away  from  that  incubus  of  the  dead  languages 
which  was  so  strenuously  insisted  upon  in  the  past.  Man  is  going  back  to 
nature  in  education,  observation  is  supplementing  book  knowledge,  and 
experiment  taking  the  place  of  authority.  In  short,  education,  with  its 
handmaids,  the  book  and  the  newspaper,  is  making  its  way  into  the 
humblest  of  homes,  and  man  is  everywhere  fitting  himself  for  an  intelligent 
discharge  of  his  social,  industrial  and  political  duties. 

As  regards  the  development  of  the  spirit  of  charity  and  human  brother- 
hood, it  has  been  spoken  of  in  the  preceding  chapter  and  does  not  need 
recapitulation  here.  Yet  there  is  one  stage  of  advance  of  which  nothing  has 
so  far  been  said,  but  which  is  of  high  and  significant  importance,  namely, 
the  great  progress  made  in  the  educational  industrial  and  political  position 
of  woman. 

In  the  beginning  of  the  nineteenth  century  education,  except  of  the 
most  elementary  character,  was  in  great  measure  confined  to  boys.  In  1788 
the  village  fathers  of  Northampton,  Mass.,  where  Smith's 
r!Qf women*"  College  for  women  is  now  situated,  voted  "not  to  be  at  the 
expense  of  schooling  girls;"  and  in  1792  the  selectmen!  of 
Newburyport  decided  that  "  during  the  summer  months,  when  the  boys 
have  diminished,  the  Master  shall  receive  girls  for  instruction  in  grammar 
and  reading,  after  the  dismission  of  the  boys  in  the  afternoon,  for  an  hour 
and  a  half."  The  site  of  this  schoolhouse,  to  which,  as  is  believed,  women 
were  first  admitted  on  this  continent  to  an  education  at  public  expense,  is 
still  shown  with  pride  to  visitors.  The  same  town  established  in  1803  four 
girls'  schools,  the  first  on  record,  to  be  kept  six  months  in  the  year,  from 
six  to  eight  in  the  morning  and  on  Thursday  afternoon. 

Step  by  step  the  free  school  was  opened  to  girls,  and  gradually  institu- 
tions for  the  higher  education  of  women  were  established,  the  pioneer 
college  which  opened  its  doors  to  the  fair  sex  being  Oberlin,  in  Ohio,  in 
1833.  The  advance  since  then  has  been  great,  and  at  the  opening  of  the 


THE  DAWN  OF  THE  TWENTIETH  CENTURY  619 

twentieth  century  there  was  not  a  college  west  of  the  Alleghanies  which 
denied  to  woman  the  full  advantages  of  education,  while  the  same  was  the 
case. in  many  of  the  older  colleges  of  the  East.      In   1865  Matthew  Vassar 
founded  in  Poughkeepsie,  N.  Y.,  the  first  college  exclusively 
for   women.     To   this   is   now   added    Smith,    Wellesley  and    W£mees"'s  Col~ 
Bryn  Mawr  Colleges,  within  whose  doors  the  highest  advan- 
tages of  education  are  to  be  obtained.     The  distinction  between  boys  and 
girls  in  education,  in  short,  has  nearly  ceased  to  exist  in  this  country,  and  is 
in  a  fair  way  of  vanishing  in  Europe. 

In  industrial  occupation  the  advance  of  woman  has  been  as  great.  A 
century  ago  few  avenues  of  labor  were  open  to  them  outside  the  household, 
and  such  work  as  was  performed  was  miserably  paid  for.  At  present  there 
is  not  an  industry  which  they  desire  or  are  suited  to  follow  from  which  they 
are  debarred,  and  the  last  census  enumerated  four  thousand  different 
branches  of  employment  in  which  women  were  engaged.  This  was  not  only 
in  the  lower,  but  in  many  of  the  higher  employments.  Women  physicians 
are  numerous,  women  lawyers  and  preachers  are  coming  into  the  field, 
women  professors  teach  in  schools  and  colleges,  and  women  authors  have 
given  us  some  of  the  best  books  of  the  century. 

Politically  the  progress,  while  not  so  great,  has  been  encouraging.  In 
the  middle  of  the  nineteenth  century  no  woman  had  a  right  to  vote,  and  the 
thought  of  woman  suffrage  was  just  being  evolved.  At  the  end  of  the 
century  women  possessed  the  fullest  privileges  of  the  suffrage  in  the  four 
states  of  Colorado,  Idaho,  Wyoming  and  Utah,  and  partial  suffrage  in  many 
other  states,  while  a  much  wider  extension  of  this  privilege  occupation  and 
seemed  not  far  distant.  In  many  European  countries,  and  Suffrage  for 
in  the  British  colonies  of  Australia,  New  Zealand,  Cape  Colony, 
Canada,  and  parts  of  India,  woman  had  won  the  right  to  vote,  under  various 
restrictions,  for  municipal  and  school  officers.  Such  has  been  the  progress 
in  this  direction  of  a  half  century. 

What    else   shall   be  said  of   the  state   of  affairs  at   the  dawn  of  the 
twentieth    century  ?     Perhaps    one    of    the  most  significant  and  promising 
movements  of  the  time  is  that  taken  with  the  object  of  bringing  war,  which 
has«raged  upon  the  earth  since  the  primitive  days  of  mankind,    Reace  Proposi. 
to    an    end.      The    movement    in    this    direction,    singularly      tionsofthe 
enough,    emanated    from    the    monarch    of   the    most   unpro-      Emperor  of 
gressive  of  civilized  lands,  but  one  whose  size  and  power  give 
prominence  and  influence  to  any  proposition  coming  from  its  court.     On 
August  24,  1898,  Count  Muravieff,  Foreign  Minister  of  Russia,  by  order  of 


620  THE  DAWN  OF  THE  TWENTIETH  CENTURY 

the  Emperor  Nicholas  II.,  handed  to  the  representatives  of  foreign  govern- 
ments at  St.  Petersburg  copies  of  a  proposition  of  such  importance,  that  we 
give  it  below  in  full  : 

"  The  maintenance  of  general  peace  and  the  possible  reduction  of  the 
excessive  armaments  which  weigh  upon  ail  nations  present  themselves  in 
existing  conditions  to  the  whole  world  as  an  ideal  toward  which  the  en- 
deavors of  all  governments  should  be  directed.  The  humanitarian  and 
magnanimous  ideas  of  His  Majesty  the  Emperor,  my  august  master,  have 
been  won  over  to  this  view  in  the  conviction  that  this  lofty  aim  is  in  con- 
formity with  the  most  essential  interests  and  legitimate  views  of  all  the 
powers  ;  and  the  Imperial  Government  thinks  the  present  moment  would  be 
favorable  to  seeking  the  means. 

"  International  discussion  is  the  most  effectual  means  of  insuring  all 
people's  benefit — a  real  durable  peace,  above  all,  putting  an  end  to  the 
progressive  development  of  the  present  armaments. 

l<  In  the  course  of  the  last  twenty  years  the  longing  for  general  appease- 
ment has  grown  especially  pronounced  in  the  consciences  of  civilized  nations  ; 
and  the  preservation  of  peace  has  been  put  forward  as  an  object  of  inter- 
national policy.  It  is  in  its  name  that  great  states  have  concluded  between 
themselves  powerful  alliances. 

"It  is  the  better  to  guarantee  peace  that  they  have  developed  in  pro- 
partions  hitherto  unprecedented  their  military  forces,  and  still  continue  to 
increase  them,  without  shrinking  from  any  sacrifice. 

"  Nevertheless,  all  these  efforts  have  not  yet  been  able  to  bring  about 
the  beneficient  result  desired — pacification. 

"  The  financial  charges  following  the  upward  march  strike  at  the  very 
root  of  public  prosperity.  The  intellectual  and  physical  strength  of  the 
nations'  labor  and  capital  are  mostly  diverted  from  the  natural  application, 
and  are  unproductively  consumed.  Hundreds  of  millions  are  devoted  to 
acquiring  terrible  engines  of  destruction,  which,  though  to-day  regarded  as 
the  last  work  of  science,  are  destined  to-morrow  to  lose  all  their  value  in 
consequence  of  some  fresh  discovery  in  the  same  field.  National  culture, 
economic  progress,  and  the  production  of  wealth  are  either  paralyzed  or 
checked  in  development.  Moreover,  in  proportion  as  the  armaments  of 
each  power  increase,  they  less  and  less  fulfil  the  object  the  governments 
have  set  before  themselves. 

"  The  ecomomic  crisis,  due  in  a  great  part  to  the  system  of  armaments 
a  foutrance,  and  the  continual  danger  which  lies  in  this  massing  of  war 
material,  are  transforming  the  armed  peace  of  our  days  into  a  crushing 
burden  which  the  peoples  have  more  and  more  difficulty  in  bearing. 


THE  DAWN  OF  THE  TWENTIETH  CENTURY  621 

"  It  appears  evident  that  if  this  state  of  things  were  to  be  prolonged  it 
would  inevitably  lead  to  the  very  cataclysm  it  is  desired  to  avert,  and  the 
horrors  whereof  make  every  thinking  being  shudder  in  advance. 

'  To  put  an  end  to  these  incessant  armaments  and  to  seek  the  means  of 
warding  off  the  calamities  which  are  threatening  the  whole  world — such  is 
the  supreme  duty  to-day  imposed  upon  all  states. 

"  Filled  with  this  idea,  His  Majesty  has  been  pleased  to  command  me  to 
propose  to  all  the  governments  whose  representatives  are  accredited  to  the 
Imperial  Court  the  assembling  of  a  conference  which  shall  occupy  itself 
with  this  grave  problem. 

"  This  conference  will  be,  by  the  help  of  God,  a  happy  presage  for  the 
century  which  is  about  to  open.  It  would  converge  into  one  powerful  focus 
the  efforts  of  all  states  sincerely  seeking  to  make  the  great  conception  of 
universal  peace  triumph  over  the  elements  of  trouble  and  discord,  and  it 
would,  at  the  same  time,  cement  their  agreement  by  a  corporate  consecration 
of  the  principles  of  equity  and  right  whereon  rest  the  security  of  states  and 
the  welfare  of  peoples." 

This  hopeful  proposal  did  not,  unfortunately,  produce  the  result  hoped 
for  by  its  distinguished  promulgator.      Doubt  of  the   honesty  of  the  czar 
and  his  advisers,  and  mutual  jealousies   of  the  powers  of   Europe,   stood 
in    the  way  of    an    acceptance   of    the   proposition  to  reduce    The  Peace  Con- 
the  enormous  armaments  of  the  great  nations.     Yet,  despite      ferenceat 
this,   it   was  not  without  important    results    in  the    direction 
of  doing  away  with   the  horrors  of  war  and  bringing   about   the  reign   of 
peace    upon    the    earth.     A    peace    conference    of   representatives    of    the 
nations,  in  accordance  with  the  suggestion  of  the  czar,  was  held  at  The 
Hague,  the  capital  of  the  Netherlands,  in  the  spring  of   1899,  and  resulted 
in  the  adoption  of  a  scheme  of  international    arbitration  which   is  full  of 
promise  for  the  future,  as  an  important  step   in  the  direction  of  settling 
international  disputes  in  the  high  courts  of  the  nations  instead  of  on  the 
bloody  field  of  war.     It  proposes  to  adopt  in  regard  to  the  nations  the  prin- 
ciple  long  since  in  vogue  in  regard  to   their  people,  that  of  the  legal    in 
place  of  the  violent  redress  of  wrongs  and  settlement  of  dis-   JheCourt  of 
putes.     A  permanent  court  of  arbitration  is  to  be  established,       Arbitration 
composed  of  men  amply  competent  to  deal  with  the  questions 
likely  to  come  before  them,  and  enjoying  the  public  confidence,  to  deal  with 
national  disputes  which  previously  had  no  other  ready  arbiter  but  the  sword. 
There  is,  it  is  true,  no  legal  obligations  upon  nations  to  submit  their  differ- 
ences  of  opinion   to  this  tribunal,  but   there   is  a  high  moral  obligation, 


622  THE  DAWN  OF  THE  TWENTIETH  CENTURY 

whose  force  is  sure  to  grow  as  the  years  pass  on,  and  in  the  establishment 
of  this  court  we  have  the  most  promising  step  yet  taken  towards  the  aboli- 
tion of  the  barbaric  custom  of  war. 

With  the  question  of  the  development  of  the  peace  sentiment  comes 
that  of  the  advance  of  industry,  which  has  been  one  of  the  most  important 
results  of  nineteenth  century  progress.  This,  as  already  indicated  in  these 
pages,  has  made  an  enormous  advance  within  the  century,  the  invention  of 
labor-saving  machinery  having  so  enhanced  man's  powers  of  production  that 
the  results  of  each  person's  labor  is  very  much  greater  than  that  of  a  cen- 
tury ago.  Where  slow  hand  processes  then  widely  prevailed,  now  the  whirr  of 
wheels,  the  intricate  play  of  almost  human-like  machines, 
^kor  Saving  which  need  the  eye  rather  than  the  hand  of  the  mechanic, 

Machines  * 

turn  out  products  in  astonishing  profusion  and  phenomenal 
cheapness,  while  the  "man  with  the  hoe"  of  the  past  is  everywhere  making 
way  for  the  man  with  the  machine. 

The  rate  of  progress  in  this  direction  has  been  well  shown  in  the  suc- 
cessive fairs  of  the  nations,  of  which,  as  we  have  already  stated,  the  first  was 
held  in  Paris  in  the  first  year  of  the  century,  while  the  last  was  held  in  1900, 
the  closing  year  of  the  century.  Between  these  two  dates  a  large  number  of 
fairs,  international  and  national,  have  been  held  in  Europe  and  America,  each 
surpassing  its  predecessor  in  size  and  in  the  variety  and  originality  of  its 
exhibits,  and  each  showing  new  and  important  steps  of  advance.  It  was  the 
middle  of  the  century  before  the  ideas  of  mankind  expanded  to  the  concep- 
tion of  an  international  exhibition,  or  "world's  fair,"  the  first  of  which  was 

held   in    London   in  1851.     Since   then   many  others   on   this 
"      extended  scale  have  been  held,  the  first  in  the  United  States 

being  the  Centennial  Exposition  at  Philadelphia  in  1876.  The 
Columbian  Exposition,  which  followed  at  Chicago  in  1893,  was  full  of 
indications  of  great  progress  in  the  intervening  seventeen  years,  especially 
in  the  department  of  electricity,  which  had  made  a  remarkable  advance  in 
the  interval.  Still  more  significant,  as  showing  the  vast  industrial  progress 
of  the  United  States,  was  the  National  Export  Exposition  at  Philadelphia 
in  1899,  a  display  of  commercial  products  significant  of  the  great  develop- 
ment of  American  commerce  in  the  final  decade  of  the  century,  and  justly 
held  in  the  city  which  had  established  the  first  great  commercial  museum  in 
the  world. 

As  indicative  of  the  progress  in  American  commerce,  a  few  statistics 
may  be  of  importance.  In  1873  tne  exports  of  the  United  States  amounted 
to  $522,479,922,  a  sum  surpassed  by  that  of  the  imports,  which  reached 
$642,136210.  In  1892  the  exports  had  increased  to  $1,030,278,148;  the 


THE  DAWN  OF  THE  TWENTIETH  CENTURY  623 

imports  reaching  $827,402,462.  In  1898  the  total  exports  aggregated  the 
great  s  -m  of  $1,231,482,330;  while  the  imports  fell  to  a  lower  figure  than 
in  1875,,  ^e  total  being  $616,050,654,  almost  exactly  one  half  the  sum  of 
the  exports.  It  must  further  be  said  that  these  exports  are  Development ol 
no  longer  predominately  agricultural,  as  in  the  earlier  period,  American 
but  that  the  mechanical  products  of  the  United  States  are  being  Commerce 
sent  abroad  in  a  constantly  increasing  ratio.  And  a  significant  fact  in  this 
relation  is  that  of  our  growing  sum  of  exports  to  England  herself,  long  the 
dominant  lord  of  manufacture  and  commerce.  This  is  strikingly  indicated 
in  the  shipment  of  locomotives  for  use  on  English  railroads,  and  of  iron 
bridges  for  English  use  by  the  British  authorities  in  Egypt,  the  rapidity  and 
cheapness  with  which  American  workshops  can  turn  out  their  products 
being  the  ruling  elements  in  this  remarkable  diversion  of  trade. 

The  progress  in  other  fields  of  human  endeavor,  as  indicated  at  the 
dawn  of  the  twentieth  century,  has  been  equally  pronounced.  Science,  for 
example,  manifests  a  wonderful  activity,  and  displays  results 
of  bewildering  variety  and  great  importance ;  while  the 
rapid  and  varied  applications  of  scientific  discoveries  to 
useful  purposes  is  one  of  the  most  significant  signs  of  the  age.  Striking 
recent  examples  of  this  have  been  the  Rontgen  ray  and  wireless  telegraphy. 

Politically  the  world  has  been  by  no  means  at  rest  during  the  century. 
In  1800  despotisms,  of  greater  or  less  rigidness,  controlled  most  of  the 
countries  of  the  world.  The  republic  of  the  United  Netherlands  had  been 
overthrown,  that  recently  established  in  France  was  sinking  under  the 
autocracy  of  Napoleon,  and  the  small  mountain-girdled  republic  of  Switzer- 
land alone  remained.  Beyond  the  seas  this  was  matched  by  a  new  republic, 
that  of  the  United  States,  at  that  time  small  and  of  little  importance  in  the 
councils  of  the  world.  In  1900  a  vast  change  manifested  itself.  The  whole 
double  continent  of  America  was  occupied  by  republics, 
Canada  being  practically  one  under  distant  supervision, 
France  had  regained  its  republican  institutions,  and  Great 
Britain  had  all  the  freedom  of  a  republican  form  of  government.  Through 
all  Western  Europe  autocracy  had  vanished,  constitutional  governments 
having  succeeded  the  absolutism  of  the  past,  and  the  only  strongholds  of 
autocracy  remaining  in  Europe  were  Russia  and  Turkey,  in  both  of  which 
the  embers  of  revolution  were  smouldering,  and  might  at  any  moment  burst 
into  flame. 

These  are  not  the  only  significant  signs  of  progress  which  present 
themselves  to  us  at  the  dawn  of  the  twentieth  century.  In  truth,  in  a 
hundred  directions  the  world  has  been  equipping  itself  for  the  new  century, 


624  THE  DAWN  OF  THE  TWENTIETH  CENTURY 

which  seems  to  have  before  it  a  destiny  unequalled  in  the  history  of  the 
world.  It  is  of  special  importance  to  observe  how  prominent  the  Anglo- 
Saxon  peoples  have  been  in  the  great  advance  which  we  have  chronicled. 
Great  Britain,  and,  following  in  her  footsteps,  the  United  States,  have 
occupied  the  position  of  the  leading  manufacturing  and  commercial  nations 
of  the  world.  The  contracted  boundaries  of  the  British  Islands  long  since 
proved  too  narrow  to  contain  a  people  of  such  expanding  enterprise,  and 
they  have  gone  forth,  "  conquering  and  to  conquer,"  settling  and  developing, 
Qreat  Develop-  unt^»  at  the  beginning  of  the  twentieth  century,  the  empire  of 
ment  of  Great  Great  Britain  and  its  colonies  covered  an  area  of  11,336,806 
square  miles,  inhabited  by  381,037,374  human  beings.  This 
area  is  nearly  one  fourth  that  of  the  habitable  land  surface  of  the  earth, 
and  its  population  quite  one  fourth  of  all  mankind.  The  East  Indian 
possessions  of  this  great  empire  are  larger  than  all  Europe  without  Russia, 
and  the  North  American  ones,  if  their  water  surface  be  included,  are  larger 
^han  the  whole  of  Eyrope. 

The  other  nations  which  have  made  a  great  advance  in  territory  are 
Russia,  with  its  8,644,100  square  miles  of  territory,  and  the  United  States 
with  its  3,602,990.  But  in  both  the  latter  cases  these  are  compact  terri- 
Territorial  tories,  held  not  as  colonies,  which  at  any  time  may  break 

Progress  of  loose,  but  as  integral  parts  of  the  national  domain.  This  is 
the  Nations  particularly  the  case  in  the  United  States,  whose  territory 
is  inhabited  by  a  patriotic  and  largely  homogenous  population,  and  is  not 
made  up  of  a  congeries  of  varied  and  dissatisfied  tribes  like  those  of  Russia. 
The  remaining  great  territorial  nation  is  France,  which,  with  its  colonial 
acquisitions,  covers  3,357,856  square  miles  of  territory.  But  France  her- 
self is  only  204,177  square  miles  in  extent,  and  her  immense  colonial 
dominions  in  Africa  are  held  by  so  weak  and  uncertain  a  tenure  as  to  count 
for  little  at  present  in  the  strength  of  the  nation. 

A  significant  fact,  in  respect  to   the  recent  proposition   to  establish  a 

universal  language,  is  that  the  English  form  of  speech,  spoken  in   1801  by 

20,000,000  people,  is  now   used  by  125,000,000.      Russian  comes  next,  with 

Probable  Future  9O,ooo,ooo,  German  with   75,000,000,  French  with  55,000,000, 

of  English         Spanish  with  45,000,000,  and   Italian  with  35,000,000.     The 

Speech  rate  Q£  jncrease  jn  t}le  use  of  English  has  far  surpassed  that 

of  any  other  language,  and  it  is  said  that  two-thirds  of  the  letters  that  pass 

through  the  post-offices  of  the  world  are  written  and  sent  by  people  who 

speak  this  cosmopolitan  tongue. 

This  immense  advance  of  the  English  form  of  speech  is  full  of  signifi- 
cance. If  it  goes  on,  the  question  as  to  which  is  to  become  the  dominant 


THE  DA  WN  OF  THF.  TWENTIETH  CENTURY  625 

language  of  the  world  will  settle  itself  by  a  natural  process,  and  the  neces- 
sity of  inventing  a  special  form  of  speech  will  be  obviated.  English  is 
to-day  the  chief  commercial  language  of  the  world,  and  is  fast  becoming 
the  polite  tongue  of  Europe,  a  position  held  a  century  ago  by  French.  By 
the  end  of  the  twentieth  century  it  may  well  have  become  the  only  language 
besides  their  own  which  the  peoples  of  the  earth  will  find  it  necessary  to 
learn.  And  its  marked  simplicity  of  grammatical  form  adapts  it  to  this 
destiny  beyond  any  other  of  the  prominent  languages  of  mankind. 

To  return  to  the  subject  under  consideration,  that  of  nineteenth  cen- 
tury progress,  it  may  be  claimed  as  due  to  several  influences,  materially  to 
the  extended  use  of  the  forces  of  nature  in  mechanical  processes,  in  which 
it  went  far  beyond  any  of  the  earlier  centuries  ;  scientifically  to  the  rapid 
extension  of  observation  and  the  vast  collection  of  facts.  While  influences  Aid- 
there  was  no  superior  faculty  of  generalization,  this  accumula-  ing  Develop- 
tion  of  scientific-  facts  added  greatly  to  the  probability  of  the  ment 
theoretical  conclusions  thence  derived.  Again,  this  activity  in  investigation, 
and  the  great  increase  of  the  numbers  engaged  in  it,  are  legitimate  results 
of  the  extension  of  education,  and  in  a  large  measure  of  the  replacement  of 
classical  by  scientific  instruction.  The  progress  in  ethical  sentiment  is  doubt- 
less largely  due  to  the  same  cause,  that  of  educational  development.  This 
has  gone  far  to  dispel  the  cloud  of  ignorance  which  formerly  hung  heavily 
over  the  nations,  to  ripen  human  intelligence,  to  broaden  man's  outlook, 
to  extend  his  interest  far  beyond  the  range  of  his  immediate  surroundings, 
and,  by  increasing  his  information  and  widening  his  mental  grasp,  to 
develop  his  sympathies  and  enhance  in  him  the  sentiment  of  the  universal 
brotherhood  of  mankind. 

The  intense  activity  of  the  human  mind  in  those  late  days,  and  the 
quickness  with  which  men  take  practical  advantage  of  any  new  suggestion 
of  workable  character,  are  strikingly  exemplified  in  an  example  that  is  well 
worth  relating.  In  the  famous  sociological  novel  by  Edward  Bellamy, 
entitled  "  Looking  Backward,"  in  which  the  author  describes  an  ideal 
community  placed  at  a  date  near  the  end  of  the  twentieth  century,  he 
pictures  a  number  of  advanced  conditions  which  he  evidently  hopes  will 
exist. at  that  coming  period.  One  of  these  is  a  newspaper  on  a  new  type, 
a  spoken  instead  of  a  written  paper.  By  aid  of  telephone  connections 
running  in  all  directions,  the  events  of  the  day  in  all  parts  of  the  world 
are  to  be  "phoned  "to  subscribers  in  their  homes,  while  great  orations, 
theatrical  entertainments,  concerts,  etc.,  may  be  enjoyed  without  leaving 
their  rooms. 


626  THE  DAWN  OF  THE  TWENTIETH  CENTURY 

Whether  suggested  by  this  imaginative  picture  or  not,  it  is  said  that 
something  of  this  kind  has  been  already  introduced,  a  century  in  advance 
of  its  appointed  time.  We  are  told  that  the  city  of  Budapest,  Hungary, 
has  had  for  several  years  a  spoken  newspaper  named  the  Telephone  Gazette, 
in  which  all  the  news  of  the  day  are  transmitted  by  telephone  to  the 
subscribers,  who  are  constantly  growing  in  numbers.  It  has  a  corps  of  forty 
reporters  and  literary  men  for  the  collecting  and  preparing  of  material,  and 
sends  its  news  to  clubs,  restaurants,  cafes,  public  and  private  residences,  the 
hours  of  publication  beginning  at  8.30  A.M.,  and  continuing  without  interrup- 
tion until  ii  P.M.  Each  hour  is  devoted  to  some  special 
A  Telephone  class  of  news,  beginning  with  telegraphic  dispatches  from 
abroad,  following  with  local  and  provincial  news,  etc.,  while 
at  8  P.M.  there  are  given  concerts,  lectures,  recitations,  or  other  forms  of 
instruction  or  entertainment. 

We  have  hitherto  dealt  solely  with  the  progress  of  the  nineteenth 
century.  Now,  standing  like  Bellamy  at  the  dawn  of  the  twentieth,  it  may 
be  well  to  take  a  long  look  ahead,  and  strive  to  trace  some  stages  of  the 
probable  progress  of  the  coming  time,  looking  forward  from  this  summit 
of  the  ages  and  stating  what  this  outlook  into  the  dim  and  distant  future 
brings  to  our  eyes. 

Before  making  this  effort  there  is  one  thing  that  needs  to  be  said. 
The  progress  of  the  nineteenth  century,  great  as  it  has  been  in  various 
directions,  must  be  considered  as  confined  within  comparatively  narrow  limits 
of  space,  its  effects  rapidly  diminishing  as  we  pass  into  the  remoter  lands 
of  semi-civilization  and  barbarism.  The  United  States,  Western  Europe, 
Limits  of  Nine-  an<^  such  British  colonies  as  Canada,  Australia,  and  Cape 
teenth  Cen-  Colony  have  been  the  seats  of  most  active  progress  ;  Span- 
tury  Progress  j^  America,  Russia,  and  Southeastern  Europe  have  played 
secondary  parts  in  this  movement  ;  Asia,  with  the  exception  of  Japan,  has 
taken  very  little  part  in  it ;  and  Africa  almost  no  part  at  all,  except  in  a 
few  of  its  European  settlements. 

This  is  one  of  the  important  directions  in  which  we  may  look  for  a 
declared  exercise  of  twentieth  century  activity,  that  of  the  planting  of  the 
results  of  recent  civilization  in  all  the  regions  of  the  earth.  This  work,  as 
above  said,  has  been  done  in  Japan,  whose  people  have  responded  with 
Progress  in  wonderful  alacrity  to  the  touch  of  the  new  civilization.  In  the 
China  and  great  empire  of  China  the  response  has  been  much  less  en- 
couraging, not  from  lack  of  intellectual  activity  in  its  people, 
but  from  self-satisfaction  in  their  existing  institutions  and  culture.  At  the 
close  of  the  nineteenth  century,  however,  this  resistance  to  the  thought 


THE  DAWN  OF  THE  TWENTIETH  CENTURY  627 

and  mechanical  inventions  of  the  West  was  rapidly  giving  way,  and  doubt- 
less one  of  the  triumphs  of  the  twentieth  century  will  be  the  rejuvenation  of 
China,  which  we  may  look  to  see  rivalling  Japan  on  the  path  of  progress. 

Of  the  other  great  centre  of  intellectual  activity  in  Asia,  the  populous 
land  of  Hindostan,  its  progress  is  likely  to  depend  far  more  on  its  British 
overlords  than  on  the  people  themselves.  While  as  mentally  active  as  the 
Chinese,  the  Hindoos  are  far  less  practical.  The  Chinaman  is  natively  a 
man  of  business,  and  needs  only  to  be  convinced  that  some  new  method  is 
to  his  advantage  to  take  active  hold  of  it.  The  Hindoo  is  a  dreamer, 
remarkably  lacking  in  the  business  instinct,  and  is  so  deeply  imbued  with  the 
ancient  religious  culture  of  his  land  that  it  will  not  be  easy  to  rouse  him 
from  the  fatalistic  theories  in  which  his  whole  nature  is  steeped.  t  National 
progress  in  that  land  must  be  the  work  of  British  energy.  But  it  has  already 
made  such  marked  advance  that  India  may  be  trusted  to  wheel  into  line 
with  the  West  in  the  new  century. 

The  future  of  the  remainder  of  the  world  is  less  assured.     The  slow 
thinking  peoples  of  the   remainder  of    Asia,  the   fanatical  populations  of 
Mohammedan  lands,  the  negroes  of  Africa,  the  natives  of  Brazil  and  Pata- 
gonia, the  inhabitants  of  the  islands  of  the  Pacific,  the  peoples    Among  the 
of  the  tropics  in  general,  all  are  likely  to  act  as  brakes  upon      Dull-Minded 
the  wheels  of  progress,  and  the   "white  man's  burden  "  with 
these  tribes  and  races  during  the  twentieth  century  is  certain  to  prove  an 
arduous  one. 

Yet  it  is  not  well  to  be  too  pessimistic  in  regard  to  this  problem.  It 
must  be  remembered  that  the  work  of  the  nineteenth  century  in  these  lands 
has  been  largely  one  of  discovery.  The  labor  of  settlement  and  develop- 
ment has  only  fairly  begun  ;  what  the  results  will  be  it  is  not  safe  to  predict. 
To  make  thinkers  of  these  dull-minded  savages  and  barbarians  will  perhaps 
be  the  work  of  many  centuries.  To  make  workers  of  them  is  a  far  easier 
task,  and  civilized  processes  may  be  active  in  all  these  lands  long  before  the 
nations  are  in  condition  to  appreciate  them.  One  method  of  solving  the 
problem  is  already  under  way.  In  the  Hawaiian  Islands  the  native  population 
is  rapidly  disappearing  and  being  replaced  by  a  new  one.  In  New  Zealand 
it  has  in  great  measure  disappeared  and  British  immigrants  have  taken  its 
place..  The  natives  are  diminishing  in  numbers  elsewhere,  as  in  Australia. 
The  problem  of  civilization  in  many  of  the  new  lands  is  likely  to  be  solved 
in  this  easy  way.  But  in  the  thickly  settled  countries  this  radical  solu- 
tion of  the  problem  is  not  to  be  looked  for,  and  the  white  man  has  be- 
fore him  the  burden  of  lifting  these  unprogressive  populations  into  a 
higher  state. 


628  THE  DAWN  OF  THE  TWENTIETH  CENTURY 

To  come  back  to  the  question  of  the  general  advance  of  the  world 
during  the  twentieth  century,  we  find  ourselves  facing  a  difficult  and 
varied  problem.  That  the  great  progress  of  the  nineteenth  century 
will  be  continued  cannot  well  be  questioned,  but  the  directions  this 
progress  will  take  is  far  from  easy  to  decide.  In  some  of  its 
Twentieth  phases  progress  seems  approaching  its  limiting  point,  in  others 
Century  jts  rapidity  is  likely  to  .decrease,  while  in  still  others  it  may 

be  enormously  enhanced.  It  is  by  no  means  improbable  that 
the  development  of  human  institutions  during  the  century  at  hand  will  be 
in  quite  different  lines  from  those  of  the  century  just  closed,  less  mechan- 
ical perhaps  and  more  moral,  less  scientific  and  more  philosophical,  less 
political  and  more  industrial,  less  laborious  and  more  artistic. 

In  some  branches  of  invention  and  discovery  we  seem  approaching  a 
termination.  It  is  not  easy  to  see,  for  instance,  how  telegraphy  can  advance 
in  the  future  as  it  has  in  the  past.  Its  powers  seem  nearing  their 
ultimate  measure  of  ease  and  rapidity.  Yet  it  is  dangerous  to  predict. 
Here  at  the  end  of  the  century  comes  wireless  telegraphy,  with  untold 
powers.  And  by  its  side  appears  telepathy,  mental  telegraphy, — the  direct 
action  of  mind  upon  mind  in  a  manner  analogous  to  that  of  telegraphing 
without  wires — of  which  as  yet  we  know  little,  yet  which  may  have  in  it 
great  possibilites  of  development. 

Other  discoveries  which  seem  approaching  their  ultimate  condition  are 
telephony,  photography,  illumination,  and  apparently  labor-saving  machinery 
in  some  of  its  fields,  since  the  performance  of  some  machines 
appears  to  have  practically  reached  perfection.  Transporta- 
tion may  well  be  one  of  these.  The  rapidity  of  railroad 
travel  will,  no  doubt,  be  increased,  yet  natural  limitations  must  check  its 
indefinite  increase.  The  same  may  be  said  in  regard  to  steamship  travel,  it 
appearing  that  any  great  future  increase  of  speed  must  be  at  an  increased 
ratio  of  cost  so  considerable  as  to  bring  development  in  this  direction  to  a 
speedy  termination. 

Of  course,  we  are  speaking  only  from  our  present  point  of  view.  It  is 
quite  possible  that  some  new  and  luminous  conceptions  may  break  down 
the  bars  which  now  appear  to  be  erected  and  open  the  way  for  new  progress 
in  all  these  directions.  Yet  it  seems  safe  to  assert,  as  a  general  principle, 
that  development  in  any  one  direction  can  go  on  only  unto  a  certain  point, 
and  that  the  limitations  of  nature  must  check  it  at  that  point. 

We  cannot,  indeed,  well  conceive  of  a  greater  activity  of  invention 
and  a  more  rapid  unfoldment  of  new  processes  than  we  have  had  before  us 
in  the  nineteenth  century.  But  an  equal  activity  may  long  continue.  While 


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632  THE  DA  WN  OF  THE  TWENTIETH  CENTURY 

invention  appears  to  have  yielded  practically  perfect  results  in  some  fields, 

great  imperfection  exists  in  others,   and   in  these  the  minds  of  inventors 

Probable  Lines    nave  still  abundant  room  for  t  xercise.     Thus  while  the  bicycle 

of  Future         seems  almost  to  have  attained  perfection,  the  automobile  is 

Activity  Qn-jy  jn  jts  pjoneer  stage  and  may  be  capable  of  extraordinary 

improvement.      It  is  quite  possible  that   the  horse  may  in  the  near  future 

end  his  long  career   as  man's  chief  instrument  of   carriage   and    traction. 

Navigation  of  the  air  is  still  in  embryo,  but  it  may  in  time  supplant  travel 

on  land  and  sea. 

The  possibilities  in  these  and  some  other  directions  seem  immense.  At 
the  beginning  of  the  nineteenth  century  wood  was  the  chief  fuel,  and  had 
in  great  measure  to  serve  the  needs  of  household  and  workshop.  At  the 
dawn  of  the  twentieth  century  coal  had  taken  its  place,  and  the  forest  had 
been  replaced  by  the  mine.  We  look  back  with  pity,  not  unmixed  with  con- 
tempt, on  the  slowness  of  our  ancestors,  slaves  to  the  axe  and  the  firebrand. 
Our  descendants  of  a  century  hence  may  look  back  with  like  feelings  upon 
us,  and  marvel  how  we  could  content  ourselves  with  delving  in  the  deep 
rocks  of  the  earth's  crust  for  fuel  when  far  more  abundant  and  useful 
resources  lay  everywhere  about  us. 

We  are  beginning  to  perceive,  somewhat  dimly  still,  the  immensity  and 
inexhaustibility  of  these  powers  and  are  prospecting  among  them  with  the 
footsteps  of  pioneers.  The  powers  of  falling  water  have  long  been  em- 
Employment  of  ployed,  but  only  recently  has  it  been  discovered  that  they 
the  Forces  of  could  be  conveyed  to  a  distance  by  means  of  the  electric  con- 
ductor and  applied  to  motors  for  the  movement  of  machinery. 
The  electric  plant  at  Niagara  Falls  is  the  greatest  nineteenth  century  instal- 
lation in  this  direction.  Thousands  of  such  plants  may  be  installed  in  the 
near  future,  and  the  flowing  currents  of  electricity  yield  light,  heat  and 
power  in  a  profusion  and  with  a  cheapness  that  will  quite  throw  coal  out  of 
the  race,  and  release  the  slaves  of  the  mine  from  their  age-old  fetters. 

Falling  water  is  only  one  of  these  sources  of  natural  power.  The 
tidal  rise  and  fall  of  the  seas  is  another.  The  movement  of  the  winds  is  a 
third.  The  vast,  heat  contents  of  the  sunlight  is  a  fourth.  The  variable 
and  periodical  character  of  these  is  capable  of  being  overcome  by  methods 
of  storing  energy,  electrical  or  other,  already  somewhat  developed  and 
doubtless  capable  of  much  further  development. 

This  is  one  of  the  most  promising  directions  that  appear  before  us  for 
the  exercise  of  twentieth  century  invention.  Yet,  despite  this  and  other 
fields  of  inventive  activity,  what  we  have  said  appears  to  hold  good,  that 
one  by  one  each  of  the  varied  lines  of  invention  will  reach  its  ultimatum, 


THE  DAWN  OF  THE  TWENTIETH  CENTURY  633 

and  gradually  the  activity  of  man  in  this  direction  decrease.  While  the 
twentieth  century  may  be  as  active  in  the  development  of  mechanism  as  the 
nineteenth  has  been,  it  seems  unlikely  to  be  more  so,  and  in  succeeding 
centuries,  inventive  activity  must  decline  for  want  of  fields  in  which  to  exer- 
cise itself. 

In  some  other  fields  of  mental  activity  a  similar  slackening  of  energy 
may  appear.     Science  has  been  as  active  as  mechanics  in  the  century  just 

closed,  but  in  some  of  its  fields  of  exercise  an  approach  towards 

,.     .  .  .  .,  ^,  .         ,  Possible  De- 

a  limiting  point  seems    evident.     Observational  science  has        |jn    in  M 


been  phenomenally  busy,  and  the  multitude  of  facts  collected      chanicaland 

Scientific 
Progress 


has  been  extraordinarily  great ;  so  great  indeed  that  in  some      Sclei 


lines  the  facts  remaining  to  be  observed  have  become  limited. 
Such  is  the  case  in  zoology  and  botany.  The  species  of  animals  and  plants 
are  by  no  means  all  known,  but  only  the  inconspicuous  and  those  existing  in 
lands  yet  unexplored  remain  to  be  discovered.  There  is  much  room  for 
work  still  in  this  field,  but  future  labors  must  be  more  difficult  and  results 
less  abundant.  The  same  can  be  said  of  several  other  fields  of  scientific 
observation,  such  as  chemistry,  mineralogy,  anatomy  and  physiology,  and 
others  that  could  be  named.  Doubtless  there  is  still  large  room  for  obser- 
vation, but  it  must  be  in  the  finer  and  less  evident  domains  of  science,  the 
surface  facts  having  been  largely  gathered  in.  In  theoretical  science  great 
progress  has  also  been  made  by  such  men  as  Copernicus,  Kepler,  Newton, 
Young,  Darwin  and  a  host  of  others.  But  many  important  problems  remain 
to  be  solved,  and  human  thought  may  profitably  be  exercised  in  this  direction 
for  a  long  time  to  come. 

Yet    it   may  be    that   the   progress    of   the  twentieth   century  will  be 
directed  most  largely  towards  fields  of  research  or  improvement  which  have 
been  secondary  considerations,  or  have  made  only  partial  advance,  in  the 
century  we   have  been    considering.     These   will    perhaps   be    intellectual 
rather  than  physical  in  character,  and  the  advance  social  rather  than  material. 
Man  has  been  struggling  actively  with  inanimate  substances   New  Lines  of 
and  physical  forces  and  adapting  them  to  his  ends.     There      Mental 
lie  before  him  the  world  of  the  animate  and  the  forces  of  society      Actlvity 
and  the  intellect,  to  be  treated  with  similar  activity.     The  political,  moral, 
educational,  and  industrial  problems  of  the  day  need  to  be  taken  hold  of 
more  decisively  than  ever  before,  and  the  reign  of  fraud,  injustice,  auto- 
cratic power,  unnatural  inequality,  ignorance,  unnecessary  want  and  suffering, 
etc.,  brought  to  an  end. 

There  has  been,  as  above  stated,  very  considerable  political  evolution 
during  the  recent  century,  but  the  political  condition  of  the  world  remains 

35 


634  THE  DAWN  OF  THE  TWENTIETH  CENTURY 

very  far  from  satisfactory,  even  in  civilized  lands,  and  there  is  abundant 
room  for  progress  in  this  field.  Man  will  not  be  satisfied  until  every 
vestige  of  autocratic  power  and  hereditary  rank  is  swept  away  and  the 
rulers  of  the  nations  have  become  the  chosen  servants  of  the  people,  as  in 
the  republic  of  the  United  States,  and  what  we  may  call  the  prime-ministry 
of  Great  Britain  —  for  the  so-called  monarchy  of  that  kingdom  has  sunk  to 
a  title  without  power.  Nor  will  man  be  satisfied  until  the  rule  of  the 
boss  is  similarly  swept  aside  and  honesty  in  office  and 


P    it   '   P  Htics 

in  elective  methods  secured.     This  state  of  affairs  cannot  be 

reached  under  the  present  condition  of  public  opinion.  In  the  educational 
activities  of  the  age  political  instruction  is  sadly  needed.  The  masses  need 
to  be  taught  their  duties  and  their  rights.  If  they  can  once  be  brought  to 
act  together  for  their  own  interests  and  their  own  ideas  of  right  and  wrong, 
and  cease  to  be  led  astray  by  the  shibboleth  of  party  or  partisanship,  there 
will  be  a  rapid  change  in  the  state  of  public  affairs,  and  men  be  chosen  for 
official  positions  who  can  be  trusted  to  act  for  the  good  of  those  who  sent 
them  there. 

Advance  in  education  is  not  alone  needed  for  this,  but  its  accompani- 
ment, advance  in  moral  standards,  is  equally  requisite.  The  moral  progress 
of  mankind,  which  has  been  so  marked  during  the  past  century,  is  sure  to 
go  on  to  higher  levels,  and  with  every  step  upwards  there  will  doubtless  be 
demanded  a  higher  standard  of  action  in  those  who  are  called  upon  to  act 
as  servants  of  the  public.  We  have  not  mentioned  in  this  work  one  of  the 
great  evils  of  the  age,  the  vice  of  intoxication,  which  has  done  so  much  to 
degrade  and  pauperize  mankind,  and  has  been  one  of  the  leading  influences 
in  the  retention  of  the  unworthy  in  power.  Legal  enactments  have  failed 

to   put  an   end  to  this   indulgence   in   a  debased  appetite,  but 
'interrTerance    Pu^^c  °Pmi°n  IS  beginning  to  succeed  where  law  has  failed. 

Drunkenness  has  ceased  to  be  respectable,  and  as  a  result 
open  intoxication  among  respectable  people  is  growing  more  and  more  rare. 
At  the  same  time  the  desire  to  be  considered  respectable  is  making  its  way 
downward  among  the  people,  and  widening  the  field  of  its'  effect.  Drinking 
in  moderation  is  prevalent  still.  Drinking  in  excess  is  plainly  on  the 
decrease.  And  with  every  step  in  this  direction  the  self-respect  of  the 
people  must  grow,  pauperism  decrease,  and  an  enlightened  conception  of 
public  duty  develop.  Whatever  else  the  twentieth  century  brings  about, 
we  may  reasonably  look  for  a  great  revolution  in  the  political  status  of  the 
world. 

There  is  one  farther  field  of  twentieth  century  progress  to  be  reviewed, 
the  industrial.     The  nineteenth  century  has  reached    its  end  leaving  this 


THE  DAWN  OF  THE  TWENTIETH  CENTURY  635 

great  domain    of   human    interests    in    a    highly    unsatisfactory    condition. 
The  progress  of  labor  during  the  century  under  review  has  been  considered 
in  a  preceding  chapter,  and  brought  down  to  its  existing  state.    |ndustry  ln  the 
What  the  character  of  its  progress  will  be  in  the  twentieth      Twentieth 
century  is  open  to  conjecture.     While  nothing  concerning  it      ^"tury 
can  be  stated  positively,   some  deductions  from   the  present  condition  of 
things  may  be  made. 

Mankind    for   some    thousands   of  years  past    has  been  subjected    to 
tyranny  of  various  kinds,  and  in  particular  to  the  tyranny  of  the  king,  the 
priest,  and  the  cash  box  ;  the  first  controlling  him  by  the  power  of  the  sword, 
the  second  by  that  of  superstition,  the  third  by  that  of  material  wants.    The 
control  of  the  first  two  of  these  have  long  been  slipping  away   The  King  the 
from  them.     That  of  the  king  has  quite  vanished  in  the  most      Priest,  and 
advanced  lands,  and  the  political  equality  of  all  men  has  been 
assured.     That  of  the  priest  has  similarly  vanished  in   these  lands  and  is 
diminishing  everywhere,  liberty  of  thought  being  made  secure.    That  of  the 
cash-box,  on    the    contrary,  has  grown  as   the    authority  of    its  rivals  has 
decreased,  and  it  stands  to-day  as  the  great  power  in  the  most  advanced 
communities,  it  being  particularly  dominant  in  the  United  States. 

Shall  this  third  of  the  great  tyrants  of  the  world  retain  its  supremacy  ? 
Shall  it  not  in  its  turn  be  overthrown,  and  liberty  and  equality  in  this  direc- 
tion be  also  attained  ?  Certainly  great  progress  is  likely  to  be  made  in  this 
direction,  whatever  the  final  outcome  may  be.  For  ages  a  state  of  protest 
and  quiet  or  active  revolt  against  kingcraft  and  priestcraft  prevailed.  This 
state  now  exists  in  regard  to  the  money  power,  the  industrial  classes  of  all 
lands  struggling  bitterly  against  it,  and  combining  with  a  view  to  its  over- 
throw. Such  a  state  of  revolt,  bitter,  persistant,  unrelenting,  indicates 
something  innately  wrong  in  the  industrial  situation,  and  cannot  fail  in  the 
end  to  have  its  effect.  We  may  safely  look  forward  to  an  amelioration  in 
the  situation,  even  though  we  cannot  tell  how  it  is  to  be  brought  about. 

The  extraordinary  activity  of  productive  industry  within  the  century 
is  the  cause  of  the  state  of  affairs  which  now  exists.    The  wealth  of  the 
world  has  increased  enormously,  and  has  fallen  largely  into  the  hands  of 
individuals.     A  century  ago  there  was  not  a  millionaire  in  our  land,  and  few 
in  any  land.     Now  they  exist  by  the  thousands,  and  millionaires  two  hun- 
dred fold  multiplied  are  not  unknown.     This  vast  accummula-   TheVast 
tion   of  wealth   in   single   hands  does   not  satify  its  owners.       Growth  of 
They  are  eager  for  more,  and  capital  is  widely  combining  into 
great  corporations  for  the  purpose  of  reducing  expenses,  so  that  the  cost 
of  manufacture  may  be  decreased,  and  doing  away  with  competition,  so  that 


636  THE  DAWN  OF  THE  TWENTIETH  CENTURY 

prices  of  goods  may  be  augmented.  This  is  but  one  result  of  the  trust 
combination.  A  second  and  highly  important  one  is  a  great  reduction  of 
the  opportunity  for  individual  business  operations,  the  tendency  being  to 
reduce  the  great  mass  of  the  community  to  the  position  of  employees. 

This  problem  has  been  already  considered  in  Chapter  xxxviii.,  with  the 
suggestion  there  made  that  it  is  apt  to  strengthen  the  force  of  Socialism, 
the  purpose  of  which,  as  there  indicated,  is  to  put  an  end  to  individualism 
in  productive  enterprises,  and  place  all  workshops,  stores,  railroads,  etc., 
under  government  control,  to  be  conducted  for  the  good  of  the  people  as  a 
whole,  not  for  that  of  individual  capitalists.  A  step  in  this  direction  some^ 
what  widely  taken  in  Europe,  is  the  control  of  railroads  and  telegraphs  by 
National  and  t^ie  government.  Another  step  is  the  control  of  all  municipal 
Municipal  functions,  including  street  railways,  electric  lights,  etc.,  by 
Ownership  ^  ^^  authorities.  The  latter  system,  adopted  by  many 
European  cities,  is  being  actively  advocated  in  the  United  States,  and  is 
gathering  to  its  support  a  vigorous  public  opinion  which  promises  to  be 
strong  enough  in  the  end  to  achieve  its  purpose. 

Abroad  the  forces  of  Socialism  are  organizing  themselves  actively,  and 
are  gaining  a  political  strength  vigorous  enough  to  create  much  alarm  in 
the  ruling  powers.  Whether  this  cult  of  Socialism  has  come  to  stay,  and 
has  in  it  sufficient  force  of  growth  to  give  it  an  eventual  supremacy,  or 
whether  it  is  to  be  classed  with  the  many  popular  movements  which  have 
played  their  parts  for  a  time  and  passed  away,  is  not  for  us  to  say,  only  the 
arbitrament  of  time  can  decide. 

We  might  consider  the  question  of  the  twentieth  century  progress  from 
other  points  of  view,  such  as  agriculture,  architecture,  household  art,  litera- 
ture, medicine,  surgery,  social  relations,  etc.,  though  in  doing  so  we  should 
be  considering  simply  developments  of  existing  conditions.     Perhaps  the 
most   promising  line  of  progress  is  in  experimental  psychology,  the  study 
of    the  brain   and    nervous  system,    the  instruments  of    the    mind     from 
the    scientific   point    of  view,  in    distinction    from  the    old,  theoretical  psy- 
chology.     This,    the    latest    of     the    sciences,     has    recently 
Psycholog         begun   its  development,  and   is  full   of  promise  of  important 
discoveries  concerning  the  conditions  of  mental  phenomena. 
It  must    suffice   here,  however,  to   refer  to  it   as  one  of  the  lines  in  which 
science  has  before  it  a  broad  field  of  research,  and  with  this  mention  we  shall 
bring  to  an  end  the  long  journey  we  have  made  in  this  work  through  the 
stirring   history  and   marvelous  events   and   discoveries   of   the  wonderful 
nineteenth  century. 


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